It was a scary, wild week recently and my thoughts and prayers go out to all the people west of San Antonio living in the Sabinal, Uvalde and surrounding communities that were lambasted by crazy amounts of rain. It’s not that we haven’t seen this kind of weird weather system before, but it’s always hard for us to comprehend how much rain and damage they can produce. I remember in 1988, when a tropical depression stalled out right over San Antonio on Oct. 17^th and dumped 15.61 inches of rain in a 24-hour period. Then, of course, there was the recent tragedy that took place just last July 4^th and 5^th in the Ingram, Kerrville and Comfort areas that recorded 20.33 inches of rain and put the Guadalupe River flooding to a high of 25 feet.  But what I have discovered about Texans is they never give up.

Neither fire, wind, tornados nor even flooding waters will stop residents of the area hit hard from cleaning up and building back in due time. One of my favorite sayings is, life is like a hurdle race, we run and run and every now and then we encounter a hurdle of like.  Most of them we can jump over fairly easy, but every now and then we get a big hurdle, one so tremendous and tall that we must climb and claw with all our might just to get over it but somehow, we always do. This tragic event is one of those huge hurdles and I know that the people in the flooded areas will recover and possibly some day be able to look back and realize with pride that they won…they were not defeated.

However, for those of us that only received 2-6 inches of rain scattered over three days, conditions look very good, especially considering we are already halfway through July. Our pastures in the Hill Country are very green and lush, especially for this time of the year.

I’ve gotten used to the fact that my cows are like teenagers. There are times that they don’t need us or even want us around them. But when something happens and things get tough, they turn into the most helpless critters in the world and want some help.

I’m sure all of you have been following the calf market and it appears that it is holding steady so far, even though it did make small dip right after July 4^th. Some analysis that I have viewed acted like the minor drop was not that uncommon after the holiday period. Others claimed that a lot of light calves were sold earlier than normal because of these reasons: the continuing drought associated with the drought in the High Plains and because the market was so darn good and tempting for producers not to do so.

We are now one week away from the 72^nd Annual Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course, scheduled for Aug. 3-5. Once again, let me encourage you to attend this great function organized to help inform the beginning producer all the way to the old producer that thinks he already knows it all. There will be some of the most interesting and well-informed speakers in the United States who are experts in their fields, and trust me when I say they can get down on the level of any producer. They will cover animal health, future markets and of course, next year’s weather trends. Besides that, the whole event is held inside with comfortable seating and plenty of air conditioning.  So, answer this question — Would you rather be building fence or hauling hay when the daytime temperature is over 100 degrees or inside in a comfortable 73-degree auditorium?  If you answered building fence and hauling hay when the temperature is over 100 degrees, then I probably won’t see you in College Station. For all of you that answered correctly, I will see you in Aggieland on Aug. 3-5.

I also want to share some other news with you; Southern Livestock is moving our office to a new location. After 34 years here in San Antonio, we are moving to 26254 Interstate 10 West, Suite 100, Boerne, Texas 78006. We felt like they finally built enough good Mexican food restaurants north of San Antonio so we decided to make a switch.  Be sure and stop by and see us if you are passing through San Antonio on your way to the Hill Country or West Texas.