Some Oklahoma producers are seeing their cattle stolen.
The Texas & Southwestern Raisers Association is reporting a few cases of missing cattle in the state. This comes after the association announced in September two people were arrested for theft of the cows.
In the Oklahoma panhandle, Layne Konkel helps run the Beaver County Stockyards. He said stockyard employees typically hear about one or two instances of theft per year, but they have heard of eight to 10 in the past 45 days.
Konkel chalks the uptick up to two factors:
"One, these cattle are worth a lot of money right now. So I guess, being a cattle thief pays good right now," Konkel said. "But also when people are in trouble financially, they're going to do things they wouldn't normally do."
Right now, prices for both buying and selling cattle are high. He said a 500-pound calf could be worth between $2,000 and $2,600 and if there are multiple animals, that dollar amount adds up quickly.
At the same time, Konkel said more recently cattle prices have begun to dip and for some producers the money gained in raising the animals is chewed up in replacement costs.
"The cost of doing business is higher than it's ever been, and it's not even close," Konkel said. "So cattle, we're making more money on cattle than we've ever made, but it's costing more to do it."
Animals are always at risk of being stolen and Mark Johnson, an Oklahoma State University animal science professor, said he hears more about it when cattle prices are higher.
But he said ranchers can take steps to help prevent it. This includes registering a brand, maintaining records of herd numbers, staggering a daily routine when checking livestock and placing pens further away from roads.
"Thieves pay attention to stuff like that," Johnson said. "If they know there's a certain point every day between the hours of X and Y that nobody's there. That might be when they know to come try to steal something."
If people know of missing or stolen cattle, he said time is of the essence in finding them.
"The quicker that the authorities can take action, the more likely you are to maybe recover them before somebody sold them and turned them into cash," Johnson said.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
