Drought in the digital age
By Julie Carter
Going, going, gone. The cattle trucks are rolling -- sending
this year’s calf crop down the road to -- I started to say “greener pastures”
but I’m not sure there are any of those left in the West.
Right behind those calves go a good portion of the
industry’s mama cows because once again, the enduring drought cycle has pushed
producers to the breaking point.
It is a bad deal for a whole lot of people including all
those associated with the cattle business -- from banks on down to the feed
companies, fuel suppliers, and local merchants. It gives the “trickle down”
theory a big fat slap in the rear and turns the trickle into a raging river.
The rancher has done all he knows how to do to outlast the
whammy Mother Nature has put on the land. Those September showers that ran
water in the ditches and put ruts in the roads came too late to grow enough
grass to hold a herd over for another year.
Technology has been trickling into the ranch industry for 25
years. In the late 1980s the satellite livestock auctions took selling cattle
to a new cyber realm. Not long after, cowboys who couldn’t figure out how to turn
on the TV with a newfangled remote control were now watching cattle markets and
weather forecasts via new computers.
Universities began gathering data on a plethora of behaviors
and nutritional processes provided by a grazing cow. They were looking to not
just bring convenience, but had a main goal of increasing productivity with the
best spent dollar. Technology companies began specializing in the cattle
industry with a focus on software development, content publishing, and
livestock supplies.
More recently, the smartphone has become a source to hold
information. It also provides the cattleman with an efficient way to
communicate with feed suppliers and veterinarians by text message and link up
with buyers over the Internet.
The weather is one area that technology can’t improve or
redesign. In a world where everything is
computerized, digitized, and data overloaded, Mother Nature hasn’t signed on
for any of it.
Man can’t change the weather, order the weather or force the
weather. And, most of the time he can’t predict it with any accuracy. Still,
very faithfully, people in agriculture watch the weather reports daily seeking
a glimmer of hope dosed with some optimism for tomorrow.
Only God knows what next year will bring. Hope and prayer
remain, but the cattle will go. People in the industry, generations of them,
have already ridden out market cycles, and continuing fuel and feed price
increases. But they can’t make it rain. They can’t make the grass grow. There
isn’t an app for that.
Julie can be reached
for comment at jcarternm@gmail.com.
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