{"id":22520,"date":"2020-04-21T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/a-tough-cut\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T16:41:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T22:41:00","slug":"a-tough-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/a-tough-cut\/","title":{"rendered":"A tough cut"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Ranching-shn-042220-1-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Ranching-shn-042220-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Ranching-shn-042220-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Ranching-shn-042220-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Ranching-shn-042220-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/04\/Ranching-shn-042220-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>A calf is born Tuesday at Blue Valley Ranch in Grand County. Ranching is a tough business to be in right now with the coronavirus closing schools and restaurants, taking meat packing plants off line and causing the price of cattle to plummet.<\/strong><br \/><em>Christine Poyser \/ Sky-Hi News<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">To Grand County residents driving past Middle Park\u2019s many ranches, it may appear that it\u2019s business as usual for ranching families during Colorado\u2019s stay-at-home order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Calves are being born and sheltered from spring storms. Tractors are still circling fields making daily feeds. Nights are still spent checking for pregnant cows in distress and keeping predators at bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But for the ranchers who rely on the sale of calves for their livelihood \u2014 and the survival of their ranches \u2014 this year has been anything but business as usual. Despite their tough exteriors, many ranchers are worried their ranches won\u2019t survive. To appreciate their concern, it\u2019s important to understand the economics behind the cattle business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">What\u2019s for dinner?<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In 2019, Americans consumed an average of 217.3 pounds of meat per person. This was down from 2018\u2019s record consumption of 218.6 pounds per capita. While American households consume lots of beef, restaurants and schools are what sustain the beef industry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to a study in The National Provisioner about the state of the beef industry in 2019, beef is America\u2019s protein of choice. With retail sales of beef projected to reach an all-time high of $110 billion last year, it\u2019s no secret to restaurants that having steak on the menu drives revenue, and a good steak dinner often contributes to the purchase of high-profit menu items: cocktails, appetizers and desserts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">And that\u2019s just steak cuts. According to the website Statista, ground beef sales account for 39 percent of total beef sales in the United States. Statistics about how much ground beef is sold to American public schools are difficult to find, but with 57 million U.S. school children to feed every week, that\u2019s a lot of tacos, hamburgers and other cafeteria mainstay dishes made from beef.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While exact shut down dates vary from state to state and district to district, most restaurants and schools have been shuttered since March 15. Many school districts throughout Colorado and the nation have already announced they don\u2019t intend to bring students back into the classroom for the duration of the school year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">And as for restaurants, while many have scrambled to offer to-go meals, nightly specials and delivery service, the number of meals purchased at restaurants and food retailers has dramatically diminished in the last month, leaving the supply chain stagnant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Congestion crippling<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A calf born in Middle Park in the spring typically gets sold to a feedlot in Colorado\u2019s Eastern plains or other Midwestern states for delivery in the fall. The calves stay at the feedlots until they\u2019re nice and fat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cOur calves will leave the area weighing between 400 and 650 pounds,\u201d said Tim Ritschard, whose family owns and operates Ritschard Cattle Company. \u201cThese calves then sit in a feedlot or on a pasture until they are ready for slaughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cFeedlots hedge or sell their fat calves to the packing plants, where they are slaughtered and sent out as boxed beef to stores for human consumption,\u201d continued Ritschard, who is also president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">According to Ritschard, with a radically reduced demand for packaged beef, packing plants aren\u2019t buying as much from feedlots, who in turn are at capacity with fat calves and won\u2019t be buying new calves from ranchers like his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhere the problem will be this year, is feedlots are still full of cattle that are ready for slaughter, and feeders will not be able to buy calves because they are losing money on their fats that are being sold,\u201d Ritschard said. \u201cThe only thing we have going is that people have to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That glut of supply is forcing prices lower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pat Pryor, whose family owns and operates Pryor Cattle Company, has been keeping a close eye on the price for \u201cfats\u201d \u2014 calves that have reached the desired weight to be sold by the feedlot to the meat processor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cFat cattle .85 lowest in 40 years,\u201d Pryor wrote in a message on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The translation: Meat packing plants are now buying slaughter-ready cattle for 85 cents per pound, a 40-year low.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Any solutions?<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The packing plants, and tight regulations surrounding beef packaging, are where Ritschard sees a significant part of the problem right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cMy biggest fear in the cattle industry is how the packing plants are running,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are four major packers in the U.S. that control 80 percent of the slaughter world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Having tight control of the market at the top can put financial strain on producers at the bottom. With a small number of packing plants buying fats for slaughter, the plants have considerable purchasing power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cPacking plants are buying fat cattle right now for anywhere from 95 cents to $1.05 per pound,\u201d Ritschard said on Sunday. \u201cBoxed beef is going out the door, as of April 17, at $238.99 per 100 pounds for choice meats, and $227.20 per 100 pounds for select meats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhat they are making on boxed beef is crazy. We, as cow-calf producers, don\u2019t see that profit back in our pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While regulation changes won\u2019t come in time to help the feedlots sell their fats this summer or the ranchers sell their calves this fall, changes at the national level could be the key to survival for family owned ranches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe need more packers that aren\u2019t just controlled by four major companies,\u201d Ritschard said. \u201cHaving the option to have cattle killed will hopefully allow feeders to make money. This allows more money for the cow-calf producers, such as my family, to survive through times like these.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/a-tough-cut\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A calf is born Tuesday at Blue Valley Ranch in Grand County. Ranching is a tough business to be in right now with the coronavirus closing schools and restaurants, taking meat packing plants off line and causing the price of cattle to plummet.Christine Poyser \/ Sky-Hi News To Grand County residents driving past Middle Park\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 12:56:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}