I often wonder how it became that man sits atop the food chain, at the apex of the animal kingdom, with dominion over flora and fauna. Many would say that it was manifested from the Creator, but as a member of the human race I would like to think that some of our ascension to such a lofty station was due to our ability to think and use logic, abilities that are accepted as having no equals in the animal world. But then again, sometimes I wonder.
In the early 1800s, in the United States, it was commonly thought that tomatoes were poisonous. Although there were exceptions, the populous as a whole remained skeptical until one day in 1820. On that day a Col. Robert Gibbon Johnson stood on the steps of the Salem County (N.J.) courthouse, ate a tomato in full view of an incredulous crowd of spectators, and didn’t drop dead. Native to the Peru-Bolivia-Ecuador region in South America, tomatoes were carried to Mexico and Central America by about the first century A.D. It was there that they were discovered by the Spanish conquistadors and introduced to Europe. Botanical references were made to the tomato in Italy as early as 1554. The Italians quickly recognized the tomato’s virtues and were using it in their cuisine and were growing tomatoes as a field crop in the 1700s. So what took us so long, here in America, to accept that they were not poisonous?
At the turn of the 20th Century, most people thought it absurd that we would one day put men on the moon; and yet earlier this year we marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission. Incredulously, there still exists a small but emphatic periphery of people that still believe it was a hoax.
Three weeks ago, on October 12, we celebrated Columbus Day, a holiday devoted to the namesake’s 1492 landing at Plymouth Rock. Prior to his departure from Spain, and for some years after, most people outside the scholars and scientists still believed the earth’s surface to be flat. With 500 years of retrospect, we wonder incredulously how anyone could hypothesize anything but a spherical earth?
Most, if not all, of our modern-day advancements had their naysayers as well:
“Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy,” – Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.
“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us,” -- Western Union internal memo, 1876.
“The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C,’ the idea must be feasible,” -- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
The subject of naysayers is again revisited on me by those who claim that the OQBN Vac-45 Preconditioned Calf Sale process “won’t work for the producer”, or “it won’t pay”, or “is the right thing to do, from a herd health management standpoint, but the cow/calf producer doesn’t get paid for it”. I understand that Rome was not built in one day and I also understand that if Christopher Columbus had listened to his detractors, he would have never left the port of Palos de la Frontera.
Can I, or anyone else, guarantee any premiums or that the OQBN Vac-45 sale will be economically profitable? Absolutely not; but this is what I can guarantee you – that myself and everyone associated with the effort are working diligently to provide a means for cow/calf producers to capture additional profits from their calves. I am, however, confident that these type programs have been and will continue to be successful marketing tools for cow/calf producers to put additional dollars in their pockets. Why am I so confident? The growth in popularity for pre-weaned and pre-conditioned calf sales (among buyers and sellers alike) and the data collected from these sales is justification to me that they have achieved some level of success.
A research project titled The Profitability of Preconditioning Calves in Oklahoma Over 10 Years, published by Myriah Johnson in the 2008 Journal of Agriculture Economics estimates an average 10-year profit of $51.68 per head (1997-2006). Obviously, year-to-year market fluctuations and feed costs will have large influences on the profitability of these management/marketing programs. Table 1 represents estimated costs (per steer) for a 45-day preconditioning program.
As you can see, projected additional revenues in Table 3 exceed the projected costs in Table 1 for nine of the 10 years. A 90% success rate would be attractive in most any venture.
Actual data collected from the OKC West sales in 2001-2003 showed an average premium of about $6 for the OQBN calves over traditionally marketed calves on the same sale day and location. The fact that Sulphur Springs (Texas) livestock auction now hosts six preconditioned calf sales annually, with 5,000 to 9,000 head per sale, speaks to the demand for such marketing opportunities. With those kind of numbers, I do not think cow/calf producers would continue to provide the calves if the premiums were not there. Jordan Cattle Auction, in San Saba, Texas, has three preconditioned calf sales scheduled between November and March. Joplin Regional Stockyards (Joplin, Mo.) has been one of the leaders in value-added marketing programs and has been hosting multiple preconditioned calf sales annually for years. OKC West, in El Reno, has held two OQBN sales per year for 10 years.
It has been my observation that things that do not work do not last. Cow/calf producers constantly ask what they can do to make more money in their operations; and while the OQBN Vac-45 program cannot promise success, but it does offer opportunity to capture added value on your calf crop. Opportunity is what this great country was founded on. Opportunity was the common vision of most successful business people. Opportunity requires action, however, rather than skepticism.
Ann Landers once said “The Lord gave us two ends -- one to sit on and the other to think with. Success depends on which one we use the most.” I can guarantee you this; if you don’t do anything, if you continue to market your calves in the traditional manner – you will never receive any premiums.
Food for Thought: “Skepticism is slow suicide.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
