It’s hard to make money in the cattle business even when you’re working

First day of Christmas break, my 11-year-old daughter was out in the morning helping feed cattle. It’s a big help to her dad and grandpa, who otherwise have to get in and out of vehicles to open gates and keep the cattle from escaping certain pens.

Then in the afternoon, she helped them vaccinate and deworm some bred cows. She keeps cows moving down the alleyway or sometimes even helps give shots or whatever is needed that she can safely do. All in all, she put in a full day’s work, the likes of which some adults probably have never done.

She does these jobs — mostly willingly (she is 11, after all) — because she and her dad have a deal that her labor pays for the feed for her cattle. She has built her herd on sweat equity. Her cows so far are either calves she raised on the bottle or their offspring. The proceeds from the calves she sells go into her savings account to be used in the future, whether on college or her first vehicle or other necessities.

She knows, already, that raising cattle takes a lot of work. She also knows that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, it’s still hard to make money in the cattle business. She knows about death loss and about prices going up and down.

I was pondering those life lessons, because on the same day that she was out working with the guys,

I was in my office in the house reporting on how some people are having to learn similar lessons but in a much more painful way.

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, meat and cattle company Agridime promised investors they could make money in the cattle business without doing any work — something even they said was “too good to be true.” All they needed to do was invest in the company, and they’d make returns of 15% all the way up to 32%.

The problems is, those kinds of returns are tough to guarantee even if you are doing the work. The SEC alleges Agridime was a Ponzi scheme, using new investor money to pay old investors and sales commissions.

Now that the company’s assets are frozen, cattle producers who did sell cattle to Agridime may be out money and uncertain as to whether they’re going recoup cattle or payment. Anyone else who did business with them may be out of luck, too, at least for the time being.

I hope if nothing else, the case provides one more lesson that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Stay away, at least unless you can absolutely verify those claims.

A career spent covering crime and scams and schemes — as well as a rather distrustful nature — means that I tend to verify before I trust. Maybe it’s not the most optimistic outlook, but it does save me from falling into cults or multi-level marketing scams or investment schemes or into the clutches of charismatic figures.

Anyone guaranteeing big returns in the cattle business has optimism I’ve never possessed. Or it’s a scam. There’s really no in between. In the cattle business, even hard work doesn’t guarantee success. Even market experts can’t predict the swings up and down that can influence profit margins. No one can prevent a drought or a blizzard that will stress finances, cattle and producers.

It’s a tough way to make a living, worthwhile though it may be. And if an 11-year-old knows that having cattle means foregoing sleeping in on the first day of Christmas break, I think adults can learn it, too.

Jenny Schlecht is Agweek’s editor. She lives on a farm and ranch in Medina, North Dakota, with her husband and two daughters. She can be reached at jschlecht@agweek.com or 701-595-0425.

Jenny Schlecht is the director of ag content for Agweek and serves as editor of Agweek, Sugarbeet Grower and BeanGrower. She lives on a farm and ranch near Medina, North Dakota, with her husband and two daughters. You can reach her at jschlecht@agweek.com or 701-595-0425.