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Market good for Clarke County cattle farmers
Assessments under the program, which total about $45 million annually, are used to fund promotional campaigns and to conduct research studies in such areas as heart disease and dietary cholesterol, the role of beef in human diets, and the development of new low-fat, low-cholesterol beef products. The beef industry has put a lot of research into new recipes, he said. "Cattle prices are up nearly 20 percent over the last five years even though the number of cattle is down," Dunagan said. There are approximately 6,000 cows and calves in the county. There are 75 cattlemen. However, "there are not that many cattlemen that have cows." Dunagan is concerned that the ratio is going to get worse. "It's an up-and-down cycle. You get five or six years where prices are good, and people start buying heifers….Then the market could go down some, and everyone wants to sell out." To raise cattle, you've got to be in it for the long haul, he said. "You've got to be committed to it….I first bought mine back in 1975. My granddaddy (John F. Autry) had cows," and Dunagan helped him on his farm, also in Coffeeville. "…I raise calves, and when the calves get up to 500 or 600 pounds, I sell them to the stockyard. I have kept calves and sold them to a feed lot." Dunagan sells his calves to both the Linden and the Livingston stockyards. After working 35 years as an employee of the Ciba Speciality Chemicals plant in McIntosh, Dunagan said he enjoys the way of life of a cattle farmer. "You've got to like it to do it." It's the enjoyment of working with animals and the outdoors, the elements. "There's a lot of work involved at different times." He currently has 50 brood cows. He has cut down from 100 because some of the grazing land he was leasing has been converted to growing pine trees. Dunagan's son Stacey helps him on the farm, and he has to hire part-time workers to bail hay. He is very concerned about the recent drought. "When we cut hay now, where we used to get a hundred bales of cutting, you might get 40 to 50 now." Keeping fences repaired is also very important in raising cattle. He believes in an electric fence. "They will still get out - if something falls on it and shorts it out - but they are not hardly going across that electric fence." Even if one doesn't have cattle anymore, people still support the Cattlemen's Association because the association "does help anyone who owns a piece of land….We work with all our legislators to support agriculture." Dunagan praised the work of area legislators in support of agriculture in Clarke County. Once a quarter, state cattlemen will meet in Montgomery and talk to legislators concerning specific bills. His concern about young people getting in the cattle business today is the cost of farm equipment and supplies. A hay bailer will cost $18,000. Tractors will cost up to $20,000 or $30,000. Add to that the price of cattle, fuel, feed and fertilizer. Cattle cost 90 cents to $1.40-a-pound for a 300 pound steer, "according to how good they look," he said. Heifers cost 80 cents to $1.20-a-pound. "That's the trouble we have now - getting young people interested. There's no way they could just buy into it and make money.
"…It's the greatest way ever to raise your kids. It's the best thing I ever did (with two sons Scotty and Stacey)." Dunagan also believes children today need to learn more about life on the farm. They think "chocolate milk comes from brown cows. It's bad that kids nowadays don't know anything about agriculture."
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