Sharon Romey

Rancher, land steward, cattle woman, pony rider, mom, grandma, wife of a rancher

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

There is an animal that:

- Walks to her own food on her own legs
- Eats grass humans cannot digest
- Drinks rainwater that falls whether she's there or not
- Needs no pesticide, herbicide, irrigation, factory, or refinery
- Builds topsoil 30 to 50 times faster than nature
- Fertilises the ground that grew her dinner
- Supports dozens of wildflower, insect, and bird species
- Reproduces herself once a year, free of charge
- Produces meat, milk, butter, cheese, cream, leather, tallow, suet, bone, and broth
- Delivers complete protein, every fat-soluble vitamin, haem iron, B12, zinc, and choline
- Has done all of this, on the same hillsides, for ten thousand years
- Runs on sunlight

And we have spent thirty years being told this animal is the problem.

The fermentation tank in Singapore, drawing power from a fossil fuel grid, fed on monoculture soy from a deforested Brazilian plain, producing a beige paste with twenty-two ingredients, is the solution.

The audacity is breathtaking.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@cattleguy92 It’s not just the fire. They are incredibly dry. We were down in the panhandle Sunday and it’s a desert there. We are SW South Dakota and due to drouth a lot of our area herds are reduced or gone. Many area cattle are being yarded with an uncertain future. We NEED cloud seeding.

[Alex Fasulo @alex_fasulo]

The land under these panels will never be farmed again.

Potato growing associations nationwide will not buy potatoes grown on ex-solar sites.

Why?

The panels leach heavy metals, as well as drop glass shards and microplastics onto the soil below them.

In a mass commercial arrangement, vegetation below the panels is soaked in herbicides.

The fertile farmland is gone forever.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

We have no idea who we want to vote for… hate the nasty political battles. Dusty feels a little too entrenched in the machine, the other three haven’t had great, clear, messaging why a west River ranch family should vote for them? Our schools out here are struggling financially, property taxes are crushing, and no clear directions for our vote yet.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@CBKimbrell @mohalibuilder No grass in western SD.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@Mike_Zakrzewski Unless we get rain, numbers will continue downward. There’s my elephant.

[Basel Musharbash @musharbash_b]

1. The Big Four created the cattle shortage they are complaining about by suppressing the price of cattle paid to ranchers to levels below the cost of production over the past two decades. Since the Big Four became entrenched in their control of the Nation’s cattle and beef markets in the late 2000s, they have used a suite of tools — including concerted plant shutdowns, beef imports from their foreign operations, and manipulation of captive cattle supplies — to depress the price of cattle while propping up the price of beef. As a result, between 2010 and 2021, the inflation-adjusted mark-up charged by meatpackers above the cost of cattle more than doubled and the three biggest meatpackers (JBS, Tyson, and Cargill) saw their average quarterly profit margins increase three-fold. Meanwhile, the average annual return on cattle feeding received by producers went from a profit of about $5 per head in the 2000s, down to a loss of about $35-40 per head in the 2010s, and down to an even greater loss of $60-70 per head in the early 2020s. In this context, sustained financial losses have driven more than 150,000 feedlots out of business over the past 20 years and eliminated the incentive for remaining producers to expand cattle output — ultimately causing the Nation’s cattle herd to shrink to approximately 85 million head, its smallest size in 75 years.

2. For example, as recent lawsuits brought by cattle producer association R-CALF as well as large corporations like McDonald’s and Sysco have alleged, from 2009 to 2014 the Big Four were paying steadily increasing prices for cattle. This was due to a natural shortage of cattle brought on by drought, which had spurred cattlemen to reduce their herds. The Big Four responded to the higher prices by closing a total of five plants in quick succession between January 2013 and September 2014, including one of Cargill’s largest plants in Plainview, Texas, which processed more than 4,500 head per day — roughly 5% of all beef production in the country. Ranchers and small feedlot owners with full-grown, fattened cattle didn’t have space or feed to wait out a dip in buying, so they were forced to accept a lower price. By November 2014, cattle prices had leveled off.

3. Before the parallel shutdowns by the Big Four, industry experts widely projected that cattle prices would remain steady in 2015 and for several years after, before experiencing a gradual decline as the drought eased and the inventory of cattle was replenished. But, according to the lawsuits, the Big Four didn’t want to wait for cattle prices to come down on their own. Emboldened by the effectiveness of their parallel shutdowns, the lawsuits allege, the Big Four colluded to make sure the period of elevated prices in cattle markets would be cut short. They came up with a system in which the heads of operations at all of the Big Four directly communicated with each other to temporarily halt cattle buying whenever cattle prices got too high. Because the Big Four controlled so much of the market, the lawsuits allege, even a temporary reduction of kills immediately depressed market prices. When those prices hit an agreed-upon level, the Big Four simultaneously resumed buying. The alleged scheme worked so well that prices for cattle across the US collapsed dramatically in 2015 and then stabilized at levels below the prior trendline.

4. This collusion, according to the lawsuits, increased “the meat margin” — the spread between the price paid by the Big Four for fed cattle (cattle fattened in feedlots and ready for slaughter) and the price they charged to wholesale customers for beef. “Even with the drastic collapse in fed cattle prices caused by [the Big Four’s] conspiracy,” the R-CALF lawsuit states, the meatpackers “continued to benefit from record beef prices,” allowing them “to post record per-head meat margins” throughout the late 2010s.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@_justfree_ Hello! Stay well. Praying for peace.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@tanpukunokami PS. These are Midwest staples…

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@tanpukunokami Ha! You haven’t had apple snicker salad yet either? French Vanilla pudding with 1/2 the milk plenty of diced snicker bars and diced Granny Smith apples, fold in some cool whip right before serving. 10/10

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@Notwokenow How bout grill meat instead bake a biscuit.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@ceraliza Fay
Bea
Rae
Dee
Shy

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@kansasangus Cloud seed and it will help. Can’t retain enough heifers when such a huge part of the country has very little grass and even less hay.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@SteaknShake But is the beef raised in the USA?

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@Trent815 Yes! Such a great feeling.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

Miraculous feeling to have this moisture overnight. Prayers that we can continue to get moisture in this huge drouth area.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@ito_san_ito_san Ugh. I’m sorry to see this. Can you use a trip wire predator alarm? Might help? Is the fence hot wire? Also, cattle dogs are great deer managers!

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@SecRollins @USDA @WhiteHouse @JohnCornyn @POTUS @SecWar @SecMullinDHS @USACEHQ Do NOT open the Border. Do a little cloud seeding in the west/midwest plains and mountain regions and if anything incentivize heifer retention. Problem will be solved from within promptly.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@pack_llamas @Mcclandes We raise beef, primarily.

[Sharon Romey @RomeySharon]

@fy_plaksa Good morning from South Dakota, USA! ☕️