Bobby Lee

Cow/calf & stocker cattle operation in west TN. Dog & cat vet by day. Co-host of @talk_dirt_to_me podcast

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@Vol_Baseball @Bill_Martin Speak for yourself, I’m lovin’ it!

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@Austin_Vols He’s a gem. I’m watching and listening to Tv broadcast tonight, but he has a bunch of thinly veiled shots and quick one liners. Gotta be paying attention, because he’s very subtle about it most of the time!

[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.

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@Vines_N_Cattle True, but I always say: don’t hate the player, hate the game! (I’m a cattle guy in the southeast driving a Ram work truck)

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@BarrettSallee Wish I could watch. Blacked out here in west TN. Not sure how this is good for the game.

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

I live >300 miles from Atlanta (Detroit might as well be Canada), so why on earth is this game blacked out on a random Tuesday in April?!? Haven’t cared too much about @MLB in many years & this doesn’t help! Just wanted to grill a steak & watch some sports.

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@LPNational

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

Well…. at least we didn’t choke like that!

[Rob Lewis @Rob__Lewis]

Dear God in heaven, hearing Nate Oates talking about Bediako on the NCAA Sweet 16 podium tonight after a loss in this event is disgusting.

Just a complete embarrassment as a college coach.

What a POS.

Alabama should have had an athletic department rep jumping in front of the cameras to get him out of there like a secret service agent taking a bullet.

Oates would be thought of as a bad guy among college coaches even if that murder stuff wasn’t the first thing you think when you thought of him. Which is quite a damn statement.

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@CraigGrafx Yeah, I basically gathered that I should just go fishing Sunday afternoon. Rick and the boys might as well just come on back home.

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@Jon__Reed I know you didn’t get the benefit of the tv broadcast, so you may be unaware, but that’s a totally different game if their all-American had been able to play.

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

Quick question: did I hear correctly on the tv broadcast tha Iowa state was missing a key player? (Not that they were trying to make excuses or anything)

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@LonesomeLands @DepSecVaden @yearlins @jimmundorf One of the smartest people I’ve ever met & he’s a TN boy, too! Looking forward to hearing the interview

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@geoffschwartz As a Tennessee alum and fan, I’m rooting for Tony to do well. Vol fan nightmare scenario is him getting run out of SF about the time DVH retires and he gets the Arkansas job!

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@TeamYouTube my Google account was hacked and I’m locked out. Tried all the recovery methods online. My YouTube channel has been wiped clean in the process. Any way I can get some sort of account specialist to help me?

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@ReedCarringer Carey has underwhelmed at times (to say the least), but he was brought here for his size and physicality in the tournament. He showed up. Good for him.

[The Field of 68 @TheFieldOf68]

Tennessee takes down Virginia 🔥

@Vol_Hoops is HEADED to the Sweet 16 😤

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@gmannVOLS Just a bitch ass move. Even worse that he half-ass shoved him. If you’re gonna do that, get your money’s worth!

[Bobby Lee @VolDVM]

@taylorcmoyer @kansasangus I’d love to implement it in that scenario. Biggest limitation may be getting a perimeter fence. Virtually 0% of our crop ground has any fences in place. With high cattle prices and virtual fence potential, the incentive to put up some of those fences may be there in near future.