Cattle numbers tumbled to their lowest level since 1952 after last year’s record drought across much of the nation.
The impact was felt in the Hoosier state, too, where the U.S. Department of Agriculture said beef numbers dropped by 18 percent since 2007. Last year, the state lost 2 percent of the herd, or about 4,000 beef cows.
Local farm experts and operators, however, say cattle numbers likely held steady in Jackson County.
“I would say cow-calf operations are probably at the same numbers as usual,” Purdue Extension agent Richard Beckort said. “Most of our cow-calf operations are smaller, so they raise their own feed and aren’t as affected by drought as much as larger operations.”
He was uncertain of area feedlot operations, but Tom Hackman said he and his father expect to gather a normal herd on their farm off State Road 135 south of Vallonia.
“I think we’re going to stay the course,” Hackman said. “I don’t expect us to do anything ridiculously different.”
Last summer’s drought did affect the price the Hackmans paid for their feeder calves and their feed.
“It took more acres to fill our silage to get the feed we needed,” Hackman said. “And it’s drove the ingredients higher, so our productions costs are a good bit higher.”
As were the costs for young calves.
Hackman estimated he paid $1.10 to $1.15 per pound for feeder calves weighing from 350 to 400 pounds in 2011. Last November, that price ranged from $1.30 to $1.35 a pound. On Tuesday, the price was $1.43 per pound.
Prices paid for fed calves — the feeder calves they’ve helped mature to the 1,200 to 1, 400 pound range — were bringing a market price of $1.20 a pound on Tuesday.
Hackman said feedlots such as his bring in about 100 calves that weigh 350 to 400 pounds and feed them in pasture.
The animals are then brought onto the feedlot at around 700 pounds, where they are finished to a mature weight.
Cow-calf operations are typically smaller, Beckort said.
“With a cow-calf operation, you have a brood cow having a calf every year,” he said. “You feed that calf up to a point and then sell it.”
Those calves are often what eventually populate feedlots, Hackman said.
Louis Bobb said his cow-calf operation fared well last year.
“We were lucky here,” he said of his farm south of Seymour. “We had grass early and had some rain in the summer.”
He generally has about 40 cows producing calves that he finishes, bypassing the feedlot process. He and his son have another 25 head on another Seymour farm.
Eugene Shoemaker of Vallonia and his son, Don Shoemaker, have about 450 head of cattle on their feedlot now.
“I’m strictly in the feedlot business,” Eugene Shoemaker said Thursday. “I buy everything in the fall and feed them out through the winter. In the spring, all this ground gets farmed.”
He said the drought caused few problems for his operation. Like Hackman, he pointed to higher corn prices for feed and the need to use more acres to fill his silos with silage for the cattle.
Shoemaker, 73, has been feeding out calves for about 60 years.
“I started doing this as a teenager,” he said. “I like seeing them grow. And in the winter, a farmer needs something else to do when he’s not raising crops, and this works out well to fill in that extra time.
“No matter what the price, you can usually make it work.”
Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt said this week that low beef supplies mixed with an improving economy could boost cattle prices in coming years.
“If weather helps restore feed and forage supplies this summer, a more aggressive expansion of beef heifers should be anticipated beginning in the fall of 2013 and continuing into 2014,” he said in a statement.
“Cheaper feed and increased heifer retention will set the stage for very strong calf prices and new record high prices for finished cattle in 2014.”
Hurt said central and southern plains states struggled hardest through the effects of last year’s drought, with ranchers culling their herds. The eastern Corn Belt wasn’t immune.
He said the beef industry has had to compete with other sectors for expensive feed and land that’s being converted to corn and soybean acreage.
Stopping the decline in herd size would require more rain and lower feed prices, he said.
Hackman, however, said local rainfall since last summer has him feeling optimistic.
“Our pastures are good, and we’ve had adequate rain,” he added. “I’m not nervous a bit about the situation we’re in at all.”
Beckort said he thinks area farmers are proceeding toward spring planting with plans for a normal year.
“Ground moisture is at an adequate level, although that could change quickly,” he cautioned. “Also, we’re seeing more irrigation systems going in as insurance against more dry conditions.”