R yan Green has been back on the family’s Hilger, Mont., ranch just fi ve years, but he knows these are stellar times in the cattle business. “We’ve never seen prices this high before,” says Green, who farms and ranches with his wife Megan and parents Alice and Jim. “Two years ago, we thought we were doing pretty well when we sold our calves, but this year we blew that out of the water by 50 cents a pound — and we still weren’t at the top of the market.” It’s a welcome change. “Dad has farmed here for 50 years and has been through several cattle cycles and some pretty tough times, especially in the 1970s,” says the younger Green, who worked as an engineer in Seattle before returning to the ranch in 2009. Cattle aren’t the only meat species basking in record high markets. Number crunchers report hog and poultry producers are pocketing profi ts rarely seen in their industries, too. The stars have aligned and times are booming — fi nally — for the livestock industry. “We have reduced cost of production for every livestock industry compared to just three years ago, or even a year ago,” explains Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University ag economist. > The Greens run 400 mother cows on their north-central Montana ranch, selling the calves at weaning. Your CHS Connection 7