A bit of history on agriculture, markets and weather

Starting 1881, the N.P. Railroad came and promoted this country. There were herds of southern cattle driving into the northern U.S. to be fattened, then in turn shipped by rail to the heavier populated country in the east.

But, they forgot about one thing — the weather. A terrible, hard winter hit in 1886 and 1887. No hay was put up and the short-haired, thin-hided cattle starved to death by the 1000s. I had one old-timer tell me about 4 and 5 year old steers going down and dying by a spring on Fallon Creek close to where I used to live.

The U.S. started giving (or granting) land to the N.P. Railroad a few miles back on both sides of the track (every other section) and farther up creeks and rivers that had water.

The Homestead Act was granted by the U.S. from 1910 to 1919. They gave the homesteaders 1/2 section (some 1/4 section) if they proved up (dug a well, farmed a portion, etc.).

Then came the roaring 1920s, never a poor day. Inflation set in, interest rates climbed. Then in 1929 the stock market broke. Kind of reminds me of now.

For the next 6 or 7 years the commodities went to next to nothing. There was very little rain. The dust bowl of the Midwest had arrived. The country was full of horses, and most everything was done with horses.

I was born in 1934 and remember a lot of depressed people, especially the women. I candy bar was a luxury. We lived from the soil, gardens, antelope, deer, rabbits, and sometimes crippled steers or cows that couldn’t be shipped to St. Paul or Sioux City. We always ate something tough. My Dad said it lasted longer.

Now for the CBC, better known as the “Chappel Brothers Cannery,” out of Chicago, Illinois. The country was full of horses so the CBC went in business in 1928 when the U.S. government made an agreement with the Russians to supply horse meat. The CBC, at one time, ran 60,000 horses between the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. They ran 4 wagons with 4 reps. The outfit divided the vast amount of land into four operational divisions: Oswego, Miles City, Fort Belknap and briefly Sweeney Creek. Their main office was in the Miles City Saddlery.

It was a tough life for cowboys but the good part was they got paid a lot better than any other job. Along about 1940 horses were getting thiner and harder to find so the CBC sold what land they leased or owned and went back to Chicago in pursuit of other interests.

In the late 1930s Roosevelt came in with programs to help get the country moving again, although what I remember is that the Second World War helped more than anything at the expense of a lot of lives.

World War II ended in 1944 and anything a farmer, rancher, or sheepman did they couldn’t miss. If you bought livestock or land one year it would be worth a lot more the next year.

My dad and his dad were raising and breaking work horses for a living. We trailed 3 and 4-year-old work horses to Ismay to be sold to the farmers in the East. That ended when the war ended in 1944, and although we kept horses of all kinds, we went into cattle.

Next came tractors, pickups, and all kinds of machinery. The biggest change in my life.

Well, then came the winter of 1949 which was a terrible 3 months. Next, the long, hard winter of 1951 and 1952. But 1953 was exceptionally wet, a lot of hay got put up. The markets throughout the rest of the 1950s were only average.

Then it started raining in 1961 and we had good moisture for years. Markets started getting better, and by 1970 they were around $0.60 per pound for steers. That market broke in 1974 but grains got better.

Inflation was setting in again, but you could still buy a four-wheel drive for $5,000. Technology was also kicking in. All markets started to get better and we would never see a poor day.

By 1977 calves were gaining some strength. We saw our first $1.00 per pound calves by 1978. We had two hard winters back-to-back in ‘77-’78 and ‘78-’79 that cost everybody from agriculture to people in towns a lot of money.

Interest rates started climbing and things got tight. Then, banks came out with guaranteed government loans. A lot of people got in trouble. Too many new pickups, new machinery, and new buildings on the same amount of land. Also the government came with a 7 percent investment credit on buildings, machinery, and equipment.

These so called “government gifts” caused a lot of people to get in trouble by spending money on things they didn’t need rather than paying off debts. Again, kind of reminds me of the last few years.

From 1981 through 1987 there was no segment of the livestock or grain industry that made much money. The value on land broke in two. Interest rates were way out of hand.

The dry year of 1988 was hard to take but it started raining in the spring of 1989 and all commodities started advancing. Most of the years since have been fairly decent since.

Grasshoppers and overgrazing are not a good thing, but I am 89 years old and that’s the way it has always been all my life.

As far as inflation goes, we have that about every 50 years and it gets to people that don’t work hard at paying bills and taking care of business first.

I have only seen two years in my life where we have been at parity, 2014 and 2015. The previous 10 years up to 2016 were the best I have seen in my life for agriculture — good moisture and good prices.

It is harder on people half my age than most. This is an adjustment period, I’ve been through it myself twice.

I am not going into politics or religion and all I can say is I am eating and living a lot better than the first few years of my life — being born in the dust bowl of the 1930s.

Adiós,

Emmett LaBree, southeast Montana