Is it just me, or is it the new "trendy" thing to talk about the drop credit?  In what limited perusing of the mainstream commentary I do anymore, it seems to me that talk of the drop is everywhere.  For those of you who don't know, the drop credit is another name for the hide and offal value, or the value of the leather and guts of the beast.  In other words, the stuff that has nothing to do with us unless we are a packer, a tanner or a dog food manufacturer.  (Insert joke about your mother-in-law's cooking HERE)

But, the mainstream cattle business is all about deluding itself with meaningless information, so here is another nugget of fool's gold that can not be passed up.  Gentlemen Producers, your profitability, life and livelihood now hangs on global LUNG demand.  Mmmm.  I love me some lung!  Quick - what is lungmeat going for?  What does the demand curve for lungmeat look like?  Dude - if someone could JUST forecast what lungmeat demand is going to do over the next six months, THEN everything else would fall into place.  You know, I think this is what we've been missing in the cattle business, and why guys have been losing so much money:  A lack of knowledge and understanding of the lung market.  And the uddermeat market.  And the eyeball market.  And the rectum market.  

Because goodness knows that feedlot profitability has NOTHING to do with this:

SELL 1350# fat steers @ $83.00

BUY  770# Med-Lrg 1-2 steers @ Brush, CO at $79.00 Friday

Return on the gain = $0.88

Profit per head with an $0.80 cost of gain = $46.40

Nah.  Math, schmath.  It's all about the forecast of global lungmeat demand.  You betcha.