10 CapitalPress.com
July 24, 2015
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Livestock
Cattle drive highlights ICA’s 100th birthday 2015: Cattle profits are up
By SEAN ELLIS
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Capital Press
BOISE — The Idaho Cat-
tle Association’s five-day cen-
tennial celebration culminated
with a cattle drive down the
middle of one of the state’s bus-
iest roads.
Thousands of people lined
Chinden Boulevard July 18 as
Gov. Butch Otter and Lt. Gov.
Brad Little, both ranchers,
joined current and past ICA
leaders on horseback as they
herded a group of longhorns
down the road.
Following the cattle drive,
a large group of people min-
gled with members of Idaho’s
ranching community, snapping
photos of the cowboys and cat-
tle.
ICA members said the cat-
tle drive, which was covered
heavily by local media, was the
highlight of the centennial cele-
bration and an appropriate way
to showcase it to the public.
“A cattle drive is pretty
iconic of the cattle industry,”
said ICA Communications Di-
rector Britany Hurst. “When
you think of cowboys, you
think of cattle drives.”
The drive was part of a con-
certed effort by the ICA to min-
gle and connect with the public
as much as possible during the
celebration, Hurst said.
“A lot of times we’re
preaching to the choir, so this
week we have opened up a lot
of opportunities to reach out to
the public and bring them to-
gether with cattle producers,”
she said.
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Current and past Idaho Cattle Association leaders line up for a group photo after herding cattle down
one of Idaho’s busiest roads July 18. The event was the culmination of the ICA’s five-day centennial
celebration in Boise.
With $2.4 billion in farm
gate receipts last year, cattle
was the state’s second largest
agricultural commodity and it’s
important to remind the public
how important the industry still
is to the state’s economy, said
ICA President Carl Lufkin, a
Leadore rancher.
“I think the (industry)
swings a pretty big stick in
agriculture in Idaho,” he said.
“We’d like all of Idaho to cel-
ebrate what is probably one of
the most important industries in
the state.”
The centennial celebration
was a landmark event for Ida-
ho’s cattle industry, said ICA
Vice President Jerald Ray-
mond, an Eastern Idaho pro-
ducer.
“It’s a big deal to the entire
industry and entire state,” he
said.
You only have a centennial
once “and none of us is going
to be around for the next one,”
Hurst said. “It’s a big deal; it’s a
huge landmark.”
With cattle prices at or near
record levels for two years now,
it’s a great time for the ICA to
turn 100, Raymond said.
“The mood is one of cele-
bration here,” he said. “We’ve
had some great years and we’re
very appreciative of it. We feel
very blessed.”
Raymond said the current
market situation makes it “a
great time for the older gener-
ation to figure out how they are
going to pass their assets on to
their heirs ... and it’s also a great
time to lay away some money
for when times change again
because we know that they
eventually will.”
Lufkin said a highlight of
the event for him was seeing all
the young faces there.
“Looking out across this
crowd today, there’s a lot of
young people here that are ex-
cited about the industry and
want to be involved,” he said
July 15. “That speaks volumes
about the health of the industry
and where we’re headed.”
BOISE — Last year was an
unprecedented year of profits for
the domestic beef cattle industry,
and 2015 won’t be far behind.
But while cow-calf produc-
ers could experience record
or near-record profits again in
2015, margin operators are hav-
ing a tougher time.
That was the message Ida-
ho Cattle Association mem-
bers heard July 15 during a
presentation by Top Dollar
Angus founder and owner
Tom Brink, a national expert
on beef production and supply
chain economics.
Last year was “an unbeliev-
able, unprecedented year for
the cattle industry as a whole.
All segments of production
basically experienced record
profits,” Brink told several hun-
dred ranchers during the ICA’s
centennial celebration. “We’ve
never seen anything like it.”
The average per-head profit
for cow-calf producers last year
was a record $355, and that
number won’t change much
this year, he said.
However, the margins
for stockers and feedlots are
tightening.
Key market drivers this year
include an ample corn supply,
continued tight cattle numbers,
relatively strong beef demand
and a larger competing meat
supply, he said.
Despite more competition
from pork and poultry — pork
output is forecast to increase 7
percent this year and poultry 3.9
percent — domestic demand
for beef is still up 5.6 percent
year-to-date and U.S. beef pro-
duction is forecast to be down 2
percent this year, following a 6
percent decline in 2014.
Last year’s decline in beef
production “shocked the mar-
ket and drove the market
through the roof,” he said.
Put all those factors togeth-
er, “and I think we’ll see an-
other year of basically record
profit in the cow-calf segment,”
Brink said. “We are looking at
a second record or near-record
year in cow-calf profitability.”
But, he added, margin op-
erators must be careful. “It’s
going to be a tougher year for
(stockers and feedlots) for sure.
The pressure in 2015 is on our
cattle feeding sector.”
Following Brink’s presen-
tation, ICA Executive Vice
President Wyatt Prescott said
the industry is anticipating an
ease-back off the recent record
prices and margins “but the
fundamentals are there to sup-
port very positive margins and
a very strong market.”
ICA President Carl Lufkin,
a Leadore rancher, said the
positive market situation
makes it a good time for the
Idaho cattle industry to cele-
brate its centennial.
“It’s been a very good mar-
ket for cow-calf producers and
the stockers and feeders have
also done well,” he said. “The
price of feeder cattle right now
probably has (margin opera-
tors) a little nervous ... but I
think everybody is pretty opti-
mistic about the future.”
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