Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 329: Trump Meets JBS… and the Cattle Market Loses Its Mind with John Campbell

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329: Trump Meets JBS… and the Cattle Market Loses Its Mind with John Campbell · CattleUSA Daily

• 0:00
  In today's episode of the Cattle USA Daily podcast, we are
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  welcoming John Campbell on to give us the rundown on
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  everything that we are seeing in the live cattle market across
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  the Midwest. This past week we had a pretty
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  rocky start to the week, but it has been really encouraging to
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  see how Wednesday and Thursday have shaken out across the
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  region and to see what live cattle have been doing.
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  And John is here with the numbers and all of the updates
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  there. And then we go into a
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  conversation about some hot topics in the news is right now
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  that we talked about last week, and we've got more to talk about
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  this week and some more updates for you guys.
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  And that is Brazil and JBS and some other things happening
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  within USDA as well. Before we hop in today's podcast
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  episode, John, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure
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  you take a second to hit that subscribe button.
• 0:46
  And like this episode. If you're watching on any of our
• 0:48
  other podcast platforms, make sure you take a second to go
• 0:51
  follow the show rate and review it and share it with a friend.
• 0:54
  If you enjoyed today's episode, now without further ado, let's
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  go ahead and hear from John Campbell.
• 1:03
  Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily podcast.
• 1:05
  Your go to source. For the latest livestock
• 1:07
  markets, industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
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  today, I'm your host Lauren Moylan, a passionate advocate
• 1:14
  for agriculture. Here to keep you informed.
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  And connected. Now let's dive into today's
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  episode. John, welcome back once again.
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  How is life in lonely Lahana? Lonely.
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  OK, you're going to run out of the adjectives that begin with
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  an L or or verbs, maybe. I am.
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  No, we're you know, we're still windy and hot and 90 I think is
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  this week up until maybe next Tuesday, Wednesday we get a
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  break in the temperature, but sure looks like the wind's going
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  to kick up So but little moisture up to the north.
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  But boy, that's, that's about the only place it it's, it's dry
• 2:01
  clear to Utah and southwestern Colorado, Durango and around
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  that area is pretty dry. And, and you get out east of
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  Colorado Springs and you know, when we got 2-3 tents, they,
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  they got close to an inch up there.
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  So Lyman, Colorado, a lot of people are familiar with that
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  from there kind of north, there's a strip and they're back
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  West that is is going to have a start anyway, so.
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  There you go there you go trying to get a little bit of cool down
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  moisture, maybe make it not the fast bowl and lonely Lahana for
• 2:35
  the next few weeks, but you know take what you can get for sure
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  that's. All we can do.
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  Exactly. Well, what have we been seeing
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  in the markets this week, John? Give us the lowdown, pretty.
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  Good. You know, we had a little better
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  run here in Atlanta this week, 16144 cattle and boy they we had
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  some good calves, had some really nice stalkers and I
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  thought they were 10 to 20 bucks better.
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  But again, you're comparing it to a run the week before.
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  We'll had 700 and some cattle. So that's what you're going to
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  see. Feeders.
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  I thought a little tougher here on on Tuesday, but still had
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  some 330 weight steers up to a 690, some little 2 weight cabs
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  north of $7.00, seven 10715 four weight steers up to a six O 8
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  and both sets of those were right off the cow.
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  We, we, we had some fresh cabs, new crop cabs, some 5 weight
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  steers that were weaned and more on the Urline type weight right
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  up against 5490 something bring 542 1/2 that would have been
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  sharply higher. And then some £600 cabs right
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  off the cow at 4:51 a pound. That for what they were and they
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  were nice cattle no question, but pretty short aged and did
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  have some 7 weight stairs going back to grass at four O 1 on the
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  heifer's side, 4 weight eppers at 570 and five weight eppers at
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  481. And again these were unweaned
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  green calves and had some weaned effers weighing 620 lbs at four
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  O 5 and our best seven O 8 effers I think brought 350, but
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  more heffers bringing in the three E weighing in the mid
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  sevens. So had some stock cows, some
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  nice young cows bring 4985 and they all kind of two week old I
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  suppose. 100 and 7080 LB calves on a black cows with black
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  calves. The solid mouse sisters to him
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  brought like 4243 hundred and a real good demand. 3900 on some
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  old cows left here and went to South Dakota, so pretty good.
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  Dodge City had 36188 cattle, a good run for them this time of
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  year. They called kind of a similar
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  deal. Their feeders steady, but
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  they're lightweight calves as much as 20 higher.
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  Some 322 LB cattle at 382 1/2. Dodge City probably sold the
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  highest 4 weight calves in the country.
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  At 6:24, 5 weight cattle to 526, weights to 467, and kind of
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  similar to us. They had 7 weight cattle up to
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  four O 1, a little lightweight heifer cabs 330 at $6 a pound,
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  400. At 5:34 they had five weight
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  heifers up to 457. Their best 6 weight ever brought
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  398 and we're talking here Thursday evening kind of out of
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  out of character for us. But anyway.
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  So Pratt today off fresh off the press with the 21123 cattle
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  called their steers. They didn't have many calves.
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  But after the big up in the market, commodity market and the
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  fat cattle market, $2.65 fats and the fat cattle up five and a
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  half dollars yesterday resulted in a 8 to $20 higher market on
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  the feeding steers. And Pratt, they actually called
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  their effort steady to maybe even a couple bucks lower.
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  But 650 weight stairs AT4327 weight cattle up to 414.
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  Again, this is Pratt KS 820 weight stairs at 376.
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  And they had some 9 weight cattle at 3:57, so that'd be
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  quite a bit better. 550 weight effers AT4467 weight effers at
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  368 and 835 LB efforts at 3:44. So right here today, Thursday,
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  like I said, quite a bit better than earlier in the week.
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  So anyway, that's kind of what's happening around the horn.
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  I love it. I love it.
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  It's encouraging to see that cash has continued to stay
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  really good and gotten better throughout the week because we
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  had some pretty darn good hits to it on Monday and Tuesday this
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  week. And so it's really encouraging
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  that we've seen some of that kind of recover come the end of
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  the week and that we're still running a really darn good
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  market right now. And we're going to, we're going
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  to bask in it, put our feet in the sand while we can on this
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  market, that's for sure. Exactly.
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  Exactly. Well, we have some current
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  topics to talk about. Our topic from last week, we got
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  to touch on it again because some more stuff has happened and
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  some more things have kind of come out.
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  So you want to give us the rundown on everything that we're
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  kind of seeing in the news right now, John?
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  Yeah, kind of along that lines, you know, first all just to kind
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  of qualify, you know, we're we're and and this week is, is
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  not unique, but a pretty good example of some really huge
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  swings in the commodity markets really over the last 10 days.
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  And I don't know if that many people realize it, but futures,
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  you know, forever and ever were traded in the pit in Chicago.
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  I mean, just yelling and screaming and writing and
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  throwing orders. And there was a real human
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  element to it. And, you know, they're really no
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  longer traded that way. And over 70%, they say of the
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  trade is directed by and actually administered by
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  computer algorithms and news announcements and, and huge
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  volumes of data are now just combined and processed in an
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  instant. And then the probability is
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  figured of a market direction and then it's determined and a
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  trade is made. So and, and, and a lot of trades
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  depending on whatever the probability of the direction
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  goes is directly proportional how much volume and you really
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  take out the human element. Now the human element eventually
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  comes in and may kind of supersede a decision, but it's
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  just interesting that, like I said, these algorithms are, are
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  trading 70% of our commodities. And, and kind of like a case in
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  point or an example. You know, before I met last week
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  with the attorney general and, and Secretary Rollins, all I
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  really knew up to the meeting was who was going to be there.
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  And, and I didn't know anything about the content.
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  I, I had a pretty good idea, but complete confidentiality was
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  really, really overemphasized because of the fact that they
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  didn't want to end influence the, the markets ahead of time
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  by letting any of this stuff leak out.
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  And and then once the announcement was made between
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  there and Friday and you could see it last week, live cattle
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  futures, they took a six dollar hit because the algorithms, you
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  know, factored in a Packer shake up because of the announcement.
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  And then Trump few days later meets with the Brazilian
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  President and no, no comment after the meeting.
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  No press well was allowed at all.
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  And then just this Monday afternoon, he says he's dropping
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  the beef tariffs and the market moves another $6 just on the
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  direct threat of the supply increase.
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  Then Tuesday night, why Trump finally listens to cattlemen and
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  to his staff and decides against the tariff move and the markets
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  back up $6 the next day. And, and, and I think somebody
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  finally reminded him that about last fall's move when he just
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  suggested Argentina beef, the market shit canned and, and the
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  meat actually ended up going higher.
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  And why on Monday, he, you know, he puts the attorney general
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  Rollins and Navarro while I'm there.
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  I, and I mean, they are in Brazilian attack mode.
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  They've sharpened up the axes and call out the Brazilian and
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  namely JBS as being corrupt. And then just a few days later,
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  he wants to set them up with more cheap meat and and hopes
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  that they'll discount the price to the consumers.
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  All at a time when, you know, they say they're losing money.
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  Well, hell, well, they're not going to sell any cheaper.
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  And, and you know, when this, when we buy this foreign meat,
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  that's who it goes to. It's got to go to the purveyors
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  and the processors that can handle the product.
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  And why he is so obsessed with beef prices is, is really kind
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  of beyond me. And and you know that this quick
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  fix that that he's proposing, man, oh man, it sure doesn't
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  include putting egg on the face of your cabinet members and and
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  then given foreign food monopoly owners a a bigger share of the
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  market. And maybe maybe the lights kind
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  of come on and he's figuring that out.
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  Like Kennedy is said, he said he don't know shit about the cattle
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  market, but I think he's maybe starting to figure it out.
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  We'll, you know, we'll, we'll see what happens on Monday or
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  tomorrow. It's a new day every day.
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  Let's not test it, John. Let's not go out there and see
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  like, let's see what happens. Like, yeah, I know that's all we
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  can do. But we don't we don't need to
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  push push this cart any further on rattle in the market because
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  I, I don't know, like there's just got to be some people on
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  the other side that aren't Rollins, aren't Kennedy that are
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  really pushing beef prices and putting that in his ear because
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  I mean, he's got wars. He's fighting right now.
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  There's a million other things that this man is worried about
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  as our chief. Like there's beef prices aren't
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  probably a big concern for him, but they're a big concern for
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  someone and someone with enough pull that it gets brought up in
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  the headlines often enough and the constituents care often
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  enough. I'm on the boat here.
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  Just like get get beef out of the headlines.
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  Can we? I mean, I'm not for hating on
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  any protein, but can we go hate on the chicken market for a
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  minute? Like, can we go yell at some
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  chicken producers and Tyson for a second and let us beef
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  producers just, like, catch our breath for just two days, maybe,
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  maybe a week if we're really feeling like we need a vacation,
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  But, you know. Yeah, and we thought we were,
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  but then he just, you know, takes a shortcut, then calls the
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  JBS boys to bring the president over.
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  And we'll have a little set down and says one thing one day and
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  then just completely turns it around the next, which luck,
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  luckily for us, something else that I I saw that I thought was
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  kind of interesting is, and, and I don't know if many people read
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  about it, but Secretary Rollins is also being sued by 7
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  employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees,
• 14:29
  another bureaucracy we didn't know about.
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  And it's all babies because at Christmas and Easter she made a
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  reference to God. And in USDA emails to department
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  employees, her Christmas message was God gave us the greatest
• 14:46
  gift possible. And then at Easter, why she went
• 14:51
  to full blown Bible and proclaimed Jesus's resurrection
• 14:56
  is the greatest story ever told. How true.
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  But the these seven people that were offended out of 105,000
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  USDA employees said now they feel unwelcome and excluded and
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  their feel like outsiders. After that those little verses
• 15:16
  were were in in their e-mail. One one guy even commented that
• 15:21
  he feels like now he's going to hell.
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  And I, I thought Rollins perfectly replied, no comment
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  but that the employees will be in her prayers.
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  And well, I don't know. But President Trump reading
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  scripture from the White House and demanding redirection of of
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  our nation back to God and announcing this Sunday is
• 15:44
  National Day of Prayer, that may not help their lawsuit much.
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  So not only is this guy really going to hell, but he'll
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  probably lose his job along the way.
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  Please, Louise, did we? I didn't need to know that we
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  had another like, federation of something or other that's just
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  suing people just to sue people, John.
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  Like what? A good use of our taxpayer
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  dollars. Right there, the Federation of
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  Federal Employees, but and I missed something along the way
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  about what the intent of Christmas and Easter was really
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  all about. But anyway, you're not going too
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  far out on a limb when when you reference God around Good
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  Friday, Easter and Christmas. Well, don't you know, John, it's
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  only about a bearded man stalking you and going down your
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  chimney in a damn Bunny. Don't you know like that?
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  That's all it is. That's all it.
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  Is that's all. These people care about.
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  Oh my gosh. But like I said, it just rubbed
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  seven of them the wrong way, so bad that the and and to make
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  things worth the suit was was filed in California of all
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  places. Imagine that.
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  Imagine that. I mean, that's, that's where
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  that's and we wonder why we're upside down.
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  Well, John, it's a it's good to know that our government is in
• 17:14
  great working order and a well oiled machine that is really
• 17:18
  utilizing the judicial court system to its utmost potential.
• 17:23
  My guy. But anyway, I, I think we're
• 17:28
  headed back in the, the direction.
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  I, I mean, my hat's really off to Trump to try to raise the bar
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  and, you know, establish some kind of a standard ethical
• 17:38
  standard religious standard that, you know, all of us can
• 17:42
  focus on and work, try to work above and beyond that, that
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  point rather than continue to go down the other way.
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  And I don't care what religion you are, but the message is a
• 17:54
  good one. Yeah, for sure.
• 17:57
  I could not agree more. Hopefully we're able to let the
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  Brazilian President and JBS stay in Brazil for a few weeks and we
• 18:06
  don't invite them back to the White House anytime soon.
• 18:08
  And that this stuff boils down a little bit and that the like
• 18:13
  lawsuits and just everything else happening right now are
• 18:17
  able to get some traction. Because right now it just feels
• 18:21
  like we're getting whiplash from our governmental systems of you
• 18:26
  were there and on the same day that they were meeting with
• 18:30
  them, you were in another meeting where they were saying
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  something completely different. And I think that that is just
• 18:35
  kind of like the story of what we're hearing right now.
• 18:37
  And it's really hard to get a lot of things done.
• 18:39
  So I'm hopeful where I'm going to follow this.
• 18:42
  I'm hopeful that we're able to at least see something else come
• 18:46
  out of this and some other people are able to find some
• 18:49
  success and preventing our monopoly systems and really
• 18:53
  representing the independent cattle producer and getting some
• 18:56
  independence out there again to really make this a fair market
• 19:01
  once again. But it's a, it's a big uphill
• 19:03
  battle we've got to climb and we'll see how it continues to
• 19:07
  unfold. And you know what, John, we
• 19:09
  might be talking about this for the next five years or 10 or 15.
• 19:13
  And it's just the same song and dance.
• 19:15
  But we're going to sit here and we're going to be helpful
• 19:17
  nonetheless. We'll we'll stay abreast of it
• 19:20
  anyway. Yes, absolutely.
• 19:22
  Well, anything else that we didn't cover as far as the
• 19:24
  market goes that we need to? Touch with I think we're good
• 19:28
  like I said, it's all time high and the Fed cattle 265 this week
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  and I don't know if many people have passed 265, but you know,
• 19:37
  you're always getting if it's 265, it's going to 270.
• 19:42
  And so we'll see what develops. But we we ought to be in about
• 19:45
  our tightest supplies right now. We're we're we're just kind of
• 19:48
  between the end of the yearlings and and the start, start of the
• 19:53
  the calves as far as coming out on on the fat cattle.
• 19:57
  So there's always kind of a slack right in, in through there
• 20:02
  and a little bit of a void. And then hopefully you've got,
• 20:05
  you know, Mother's Day behind us, but that's kind of the onset
• 20:10
  of the grilling season and so. I don't know, Pretty pretty
• 20:15
  optimistic. Love it.
• 20:17
  I love it. Well, as always, John, thank you
• 20:19
  so much for coming on today, sharing your thoughts inside all
• 20:22
  the things, giving us the update on everything that we've been
• 20:25
  seeing in the cattle market over the past week and some outside
• 20:28
  factors that have been affecting it as well.
• 20:31
  We appreciate your time, energy, all the things.
• 20:33
  And to all of you audience members, thanks for tuning in to
• 20:36
  another episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
• 20:38
  We will see you all on another episode next time.
• 20:41
  Have a good one y'all.