Cattle ranchers find themselves alone on the range

Tim Koopman is the first of four generations of cattlemen to take a second job, outside of his Sunol ranch. While both of his adult children own small beef operations, they too earn their livings from careers other than ranching. Koopman hopes to continue running his 150-head herd even if the ranch can't completely sustain them financially. But a number of American cattle families are throwing in their branding irons, either selling off their land or planting crops. While the price of beef is at record highs, the cost of doing business for some is impossible. The United States lost 9,000 beef operations from 2009 to 2010 (2011 numbers have not been released) and the inventory of cattle is the lowest since 1952, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As of Jan. 1, U.S. ranchers held 29.9 million head of beef cattle, down 3 percent from a year earlier. In California, there are fewer than 600,000 head - a number that neared a million 20 to 30 years ago, Kester said. The shrinking beef supply is affecting consumers, who on average paid 10 percent more per pound for meat in 2011 than they did the year before, said Steve Kay, editor and publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly, a trade publication based in Petaluma. "Consumer prices could go up another 10 percent this year," he said. Still, demand hasn't faltered...more