Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with the Executive Vice President of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, Michael Kelsey, as Kelsey gives a year in review for OCA and talks about what is coming up for 2024.
Overall, Kelsey said 2023 has been a year of challenges and opportunities. In all of his years serving the cattle industry, Kelsey said 2023 has been the most unique with the mix of drought, declining cow numbers, government regulations, attacks from animal rights groups, and more.
Kelsey said he is proud of OCA members for being open to new innovations in a changing industry.
“We have a lot of members who have changed their marketing to new methods,” Kelsey said. “What I mean by newer is newer to them. Communicating more actively with their marketer…”
Kelsey also applauded OCA members for continually preparing their cattle better for the market.
“It is almost to the point where we knew this was coming,” Kelsey said. “It is not so much as a premium market anymore; It is a discounted market. There are fewer and fewer cattle that are getting discounted because people are doing a better job of preparing their cattle.”
Many producers have been able to take advantage of risk management programs such as Livestock Risk Protection this year, Kelsey said, and because of this, many of those programs have seen growth.
Looking into 2024, Kelsey said promoting and defending the cattle industry will be critical as many adversaries, such as animal rights groups, aim to gain more of a foothold. On the bright side, Kelsey said there has been a decrease in the popularity of non-meat alternatives.
“Plant-based meats are just not as popular as they once were,” Kelsey said. “In fact, the investment is not as profitable as it once was. Lab-based products are seeing a little bit of a resurgence, and we are seeing some companies that have bought into it or invested in it, so we will see what happens there.”
In the state of Oklahoma, Kelsey said water will continue to be a major issue, along with tribal issues.
“McGirt started a sequence of events and questions that have to be answered,” Kelsey said. “How that continues to grow or evolve is critical. Our board, in November, formed a task force to study and talk about OCA’s role within those issues of tribal relationships, sovereignty, Indian country relations, if you will.”
Aside from more priorities of 2024, Kelsey also talked about the upcoming Cattlemen’s Congress and the success the show has seen so far. Click the listen bar above the story to hear the full conversation!
