KLA leader says regulation is not the answer as cattle industry sees signs of bouncing back. More than 800 Kansas Livestock Association members attended the 109th annual convention from Dec. 2 to Dec. 4, hungry for information.
Not only did they want to learn about the nuts and bolts of raising cattle, making profits during inflation and understanding the newest technology, attendees voted on their new president and heard about how climate change and consumer demographics are affecting the industry. They also heard about the economy and where the industry was going.
On Thursday, KLA president Jerry Kuckelman explained during the State of the state’s livestock address, how “in general,” the industry is doing well. “We’ve come through a very, very challenging period that started with a fire in Finney County,” he said. “And pretty much had that cleaned up as far as an inventory of finished cattle we need to work through, and then COVID hit us the start of 2020.”
Kuckelman said they could not get enough cattle to slaughter, even though there was plenty of cattle around that need to go through the system. “We just got backlogged,” he said.
During the same time, beef prices increased with record packer numbers. Kuckelman wants to make sure the ranchers get their fair share.
“I’ve always believed this is a very cyclical business,” he said. “When the numbers align themselves, we get a little leverage back. We’ve had basically a $14 to $16 rally down the last five to six weeks.”
Kuckelman believes this dilemma will soon fix itself and believes ranchers are seeing the rewards right now, saying the industry needs patience. He said, however, government interference is the wrong way to resolve this problem.
CattleFax chief executive officer, Randy Blach, spoke of the cattle and grain market outlook. Like Kuckelman, he said regulation has a lot of issues.
“One of the most pertinent issues is that it removes the environment, the economic value,” he said. “You’re kind of cornered into implementing practices, and you may or may not see any benefit from that.”
He said, instead, by allowing the private market, the supply chain, to help producers determine what’s the most valuable practice to implement on their operations ensures that everyone wins.
“We’ve got cattle prices trading as high as they have since back in the 2015/2016 class of cattle,” he said. “So it’s starting to move.”
Blach said demand is at a 30-year high for both retail and wholesale, explaining that the industry is finally working through some of that backlog supply that they have had during the last 18 months because of COVID-19. “We’re just getting everything kind of in sync,” he said. “We’ve got a tighter running supply.”
During KLA’s annual meeting, members chose Phil Perry of Oskaloosa as the president and Shawn Tiffany, a cattle feeder from Herington, as the president-elect. Perry and Tiffany will lead the 5,700-member organization during the next year. 
Perry has worked in the cattle industry for more than 40 years. He and his wife, Rhonda, own a cow-calf operation and custom preconditioning business. The bulk of their Angus-based cowherd calves in the spring. Depending on marketing opportunities, the Perry’s either sell calves after weaning or retain ownership through the finishing stage, which is carried out in custom feed yards in western Kansas. Perry grew up in Oskaloosa and lives on land owned by his family for six generations.
Tiffany co-owns and operates Tiffany Cattle Company with his brother Shane. The two grew up in the cattle feeding business and when the opportunity arose in 2007 to purchase the feed yard their father managed for several years, Black Diamond Custom Feeders near Herington, they saw it as a chance to establish something of their own. Since that time, the joint venture grew to include a second finishing yard near Marquette and, most recently, a grow yard at Allen. Tiffany also is a partner in Elevate Ag, a company that produces biological inputs for farming and grazing systems. Prior to starting the family business, he served as ranch manager for Chair Rock Angus near Greeley.
