Rob:  Well, joining me now is Derrell Peel, extension livestock marketing specialist, for Oklahoma State University.  Well, how much pressure has the push toward bio fuels put on the livestock feeding industry?
Derrell Peel:  Well, there’s been tremendous pressure both short-run, and then there’s certainly implications for the long-run as well in this; I mean, basically we’ve seen the cost of nearly all of the major grains in the U S double in the last two years.  And so, you know, the beef industry uses part of that grain, livestock has been, historically, the major user of corn in this country, and so that kind of increase in feed cost, necessarily, has tremendous impacts on the livestock industry.
Rob:  Could we be asking too much from our livestock industry, or our overall agriculture industry, to provide food and fuel?
Peel:  Well, I don’t think it’s a question of whether we can do it or not.  We can do it.  But, as in most things in economic markets, if you have more demand, you’re going to have to have prices to ration that to find out what the highest priorities of the market are for use of those resources, so.  You can do it, but you are going to have some price and economic impacts that will affect the overall levels of production and the allocation of resources.
Rob:  So is it safe to say we are going to have higher food prices for the foreseeable future?
Peel:  Well, I don’t think there’s any doubt in the long-term  that, you know after we make some adjustments and work our way through this, if we continue to have the higher level of feed cost that we have, that has to translate, necessarily, into higher meat prices from the livestock sector in particular, as we go forward.
Rob:  Now, our industry, and the stocker cattle industry, is such a unique industry here in Oklahoma, because they go onto wheat, they’ll stay there throughout the winter, and then they’ll come off and they’re able to harvest that grain.  Tell me this Derrell, do you see that cycle ever changing if the price of gain continues to stay at its current levels?
Peel:  Well, certainly again, in the short-run there’s a lot of emphasis on preserving that grain crop, not taking too many risks with that grain crop.  On the other hand, higher feed prices and higher grain prices in particular makes forage more valuable as well.  So, I think longer term, it puts even more premium on utilizing that forage to the extent that we can have that dual purpose crop and get both of those crops.   So, it probably means we’re going to need to manage a little more carefully a little more intensively, we’re not going to want to take too many risks, but we’re certainly not going to want to walk away from that  very high-quality forage source that we’ve long relied on.
Rob:  All right, thank you very much; Derrell Peel, extension livestock marketing specialist, at Oklahoma State University.