While looking through some ag news this evening, I came across a news story that piqued my interest. In Oklahoma, ranchers are seeing an increase in cattle thefts. The
article, by Reuters, goes on to state that a high percentage of those that are stealing cattle are methamphetamine users who in turn sell the stolen cows to pay for their drug addictions.
According to the article, cattle thefts cost Oklahoma ranchers $4.5 million in 2014. Anyone who has driven through Oklahoma or a part of the country where a considerable part of the agricultural economy consists of income derived from ranching can attest to the fact that rangeland is vast and that cattle in pasture is often times hard to monitor.
That's what makes this part of the story so disheartening; having grown up in an incredibly rural portion of North Dakota where ranching is common, I know that it would be hard to catch someone in the act of stealing a cow off of my family's or my neighbors' pastureland.
Maybe the increase in cattle rustling is just a side effect of record high prices, causing one head of cattle to be worth $3,000. The high price for one head justifies the risk and work for a meth addict to steal and fit a cow to sell at market without suspicion. Maybe cattle prices will decrease and disincentivize burglars from going through the trouble. It seems a bit like a catch-22; if cattle prices decrease, the risk of cattle theft will most likely decrease, but if cattle prices decrease, rancher revenue declines.
Regardless, this was an interesting story and is reminiscent of wilder days of the West.
No comments:
Post a Comment