July 14, 2025 • 6 mins
Kentucky-based US farming correspondent on record beef prices, record tariffs and record floods in Texas.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's a US farming correspondent, Todd Clark, based in Bluegrass Country, Lexington, Kentucky,
and Todd, you sent me a wonderful video from the
Paris Stockyards, just northwest of Lexington, Kentucky, where an all
time state record was set for a thousand pound stairs.
(00:21):
In fact, they were one thousand and thirty eight pounds.
They went for three thousand and twelve US dollars per head.
That is enormous money. Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It is enormous money. And it's also good news because
as a farmer where I always holding our breath to
thinking that you know that this week is the week
the prices start to fall and we're hanging steady. It's
not continuing to tick up just a little bit. So
(00:56):
it's uncharted waters for us to receive the sort of
money that we're receiving. But even baby calves, well newborn calves,
dairy calves, there's not a lot of those in Kentucky,
but those would be six seven hundred dollars apiece, and
that's just craziness to pay that much for a two
(01:19):
or three day old cave.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And let's just remind people of the exchange rate, it's
sixty US cents to one New Zealand dollar. Todd. I
don't want to bore you with numbers, but I do
like numbers. I converted your thousand and thirty eight pounds
to kilograms four hundred and seventy two kilograms live weight
across the scales and US dollars. That's six dollars thirty
eight a kilogram. But when I put in the sixty
(01:43):
cent exchange rate to give you a New Zealand equivalent,
it is New Zealand ten dollars sixty three live weight.
And then I've even gone one step further and I've
taken the yield, which you told me would be about
sixty percent. That equates to seventeen dollars seventy New Zealand
per kilogram on the hooks. That is huge money.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It is in a lot of agriculture in the US
is having tough times because of weather and in markets
and tariffs and in all sorts of different things. But
the US beef farmers are we're trying to we're trying
to hide our enthusiasm because it's certainly our payday and
(02:27):
we've we've waited years since the last time, we had
a really good payday, and we're having it now, and
that's it's good news. It's keeping lots of farms afloat,
that's for.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Sure, Hey Todd, No wonder US consumers can afford to
pay the tariffs. At the moment, we're on the base
rate of ten percent tariff. You guys just seem to
be quite happy to pay that because you desperately need
our beef for your hamburgers. Trump interestingly has threatened Canada
with thirty five percent, Mexico and the EU with thirty percent,
(03:04):
and there is talk of the based tariff, which we're
on at the moment of ten percent, maybe going to
fifteen or twenty percent. How are his tariffs being received
at home?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
For the most part, it's not felt except for a
few industries, and so one especially here in Kentucky is Bourbon.
And so the bourbon industry ninety five percent of that
product is produced here in Kentucky, and tariffs have really
caused that to slow down. But as you pointed out,
(03:36):
with the beef, based on the prices we're receiving, it's
not a big deal to pay the tariff to get
beef from you all. In other places, it's still probably
a decent buy compared to what we're being paid here.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Unbelievable. You talked about the weather. We've seen the devastation
in Texas. Want to start with Kentucky and go down
to Tech. How summer treating you, because you're like in
the height of summer.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Now we are, we're in the what I would call
the dog days of summer, so really long days and
it doesn't get dark until nine thirty or something like that,
and but just normal for us, but really hot. So
as we as we talk this evening, it's or evening
here in Kentucky, it's thirty thirty one degrees celsius. In
(04:29):
that's just not unusual, so I think the feel like
temperature is more like thirty four or thirty five celsius.
We're continuing to get rain, so that's that's good. It
takes about an inch a week for us to maintain
our soil moisture. And the last time we talked, we
were getting close to a year's worth of rainfall in
(04:50):
six months, and we did surpass that. So we we've
already received our annual rainfall at the end of June,
first part of July, and at this point, it's continuing.
We'll see if if the fauset turns off at some.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Point, but we hope not, Todd really quickly to finish on.
It could be worse. You could be in Texas.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, that's exactly right THEE and I know you all
have had really bad flooding in New Zealand as well,
but in Texas it was flash flooding and and I've
lost track of how many people have perished, but at
one point between people that had passed passed away that
were found and people that couldn't be found, it was
(05:34):
over three hundred people. And so just a really bad
situation that happened very quickly. And there is weather extremes
and it just seems like that every day is a
different day with something else that we have to battle weatherwise.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Todd Clark, thanks to you toon from Lexington, Kentucky. You
Americans keep paying those record prices for bait. We love
it and see you light C.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
James think
He's a US farming correspondent, Todd Clark, based in Bluegrass Country, Lexington, Kentucky,
and Todd, you sent me a wonderful video from the
Paris Stockyards, just northwest of Lexington, Kentucky, where an all
time state record was set for a thousand pound stairs.
(00:21):
In fact, they were one thousand and thirty eight pounds.
They went for three thousand and twelve US dollars per head.
That is enormous money. Good afternoon, Good afternoon, Jamie.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
It is enormous money. And it's also good news because
as a farmer where I always holding our breath to
thinking that you know that this week is the week
the prices start to fall and we're hanging steady. It's
not continuing to tick up just a little bit. So
(00:56):
it's uncharted waters for us to receive the sort of
money that we're receiving. But even baby calves, well newborn calves,
dairy calves, there's not a lot of those in Kentucky,
but those would be six seven hundred dollars apiece, and
that's just craziness to pay that much for a two
(01:19):
or three day old cave.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And let's just remind people of the exchange rate, it's
sixty US cents to one New Zealand dollar. Todd. I
don't want to bore you with numbers, but I do
like numbers. I converted your thousand and thirty eight pounds
to kilograms four hundred and seventy two kilograms live weight
across the scales and US dollars. That's six dollars thirty
eight a kilogram. But when I put in the sixty
(01:43):
cent exchange rate to give you a New Zealand equivalent,
it is New Zealand ten dollars sixty three live weight.
And then I've even gone one step further and I've
taken the yield, which you told me would be about
sixty percent. That equates to seventeen dollars seventy New Zealand
per kilogram on the hooks. That is huge money.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
It is in a lot of agriculture in the US
is having tough times because of weather and in markets
and tariffs and in all sorts of different things. But
the US beef farmers are we're trying to we're trying
to hide our enthusiasm because it's certainly our payday and
(02:27):
we've we've waited years since the last time, we had
a really good payday, and we're having it now, and
that's it's good news. It's keeping lots of farms afloat,
that's for.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Sure, Hey Todd, No wonder US consumers can afford to
pay the tariffs. At the moment, we're on the base
rate of ten percent tariff. You guys just seem to
be quite happy to pay that because you desperately need
our beef for your hamburgers. Trump interestingly has threatened Canada
with thirty five percent, Mexico and the EU with thirty percent,
(03:04):
and there is talk of the based tariff, which we're
on at the moment of ten percent, maybe going to
fifteen or twenty percent. How are his tariffs being received
at home?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
For the most part, it's not felt except for a
few industries, and so one especially here in Kentucky is Bourbon.
And so the bourbon industry ninety five percent of that
product is produced here in Kentucky, and tariffs have really
caused that to slow down. But as you pointed out,
(03:36):
with the beef, based on the prices we're receiving, it's
not a big deal to pay the tariff to get
beef from you all. In other places, it's still probably
a decent buy compared to what we're being paid here.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Unbelievable. You talked about the weather. We've seen the devastation
in Texas. Want to start with Kentucky and go down
to Tech. How summer treating you, because you're like in
the height of summer.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Now we are, we're in the what I would call
the dog days of summer, so really long days and
it doesn't get dark until nine thirty or something like that,
and but just normal for us, but really hot. So
as we as we talk this evening, it's or evening
here in Kentucky, it's thirty thirty one degrees celsius. In
(04:29):
that's just not unusual, so I think the feel like
temperature is more like thirty four or thirty five celsius.
We're continuing to get rain, so that's that's good. It
takes about an inch a week for us to maintain
our soil moisture. And the last time we talked, we
were getting close to a year's worth of rainfall in
(04:50):
six months, and we did surpass that. So we we've
already received our annual rainfall at the end of June,
first part of July, and at this point, it's continuing.
We'll see if if the fauset turns off at some.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Point, but we hope not, Todd really quickly to finish on.
It could be worse. You could be in Texas.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Yeah, that's exactly right THEE and I know you all
have had really bad flooding in New Zealand as well,
but in Texas it was flash flooding and and I've
lost track of how many people have perished, but at
one point between people that had passed passed away that
were found and people that couldn't be found, it was
(05:34):
over three hundred people. And so just a really bad
situation that happened very quickly. And there is weather extremes
and it just seems like that every day is a
different day with something else that we have to battle weatherwise.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Todd Clark, thanks to you toon from Lexington, Kentucky. You
Americans keep paying those record prices for bait. We love
it and see you light C.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
James think
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