Feeder steers and diamond rings

[Mcrafty1]

Miss Candy is a jeweler. I am not but she has taught me a little about precious stones & metals. The prices for diamonds and the prices for a ring vary greatly. There are a bunch of specifications for diamonds. So you can easily buy a large low grade diamond for the same price as a small high grade diamond. This same is true for metals. Gold for instance, is graded for purity. 100% gold is just that but it is very soft so it wears easily. Ring that are an alloy are just as shinny to me and are harder so they dont wear as fast.

Miss Candy has also taught me that every woman has their own idea of the perfect ring. And don’t be surprised when she changes her mind.
The bottom line is. What ever make her happy is the right answer. Even if it takes 2 steers

Yes, when it comes to wives...We can be right, or we can be happy...but we can't be both

 

[Mcrafty1]

While it might be possible to control the chicken or pig market because of the low land use there is no one in the world that could control the cattle market by buying up all the cows.

I have read the figures before but can’t really remember the exact amount but I want to say over 1/3 the land is the USA is devoted to grazing cattle.
We can look at it another way. It takes several acres to graze a cow calf pair and several states have more cows than they have people.
Just not possible for one entity to own that much land.

"Let me start by stating I have zero knowledge of cattle buying, raising or selling."
My thought process here was more toward the processing end, I wasn't clear on that. Where do commercial cattle growers get their product processed for market? Are there multiple processors left in America? or do most cattle end up outside the country for that?

Oh, and I wasn't meaning to hijack this thread, we were talking about cattle though

 

[Rbellucci]

I know this thread is old but sharing my opinion: one calf then was roughly a month's wages, and $350 in 1972 is around $2,600 today, so a comparable ring would probably eat the whole $1,200 and then some. Gold's up massively since then and even a small natural diamond isn't cheap. Lab grown has changed that though, Rare Carat and similar sites will sell you something visually similar for a fraction, so if you're just curious about the calf comparison the answer is no, one calf doesn't buy what it used to.

 

[Loosehandle]

According to an “inflation calculator” I found online, a $350 purchase in 1973 would cost $2472.77 in 2024. I have no idea how accurate that is or how inflation affects the gold and diamond markets, but dollar for dollar I don’t think $1200 would buy the same ring today.

The way things have went probably 3k+ today

 

[SkipperII]

Miss Candy is a jeweler. I am not but she has taught me a little about precious stones & metals. The prices for diamonds and the prices for a ring vary greatly. There are a bunch of specifications for diamonds. So you can easily buy a large low grade diamond for the same price as a small high grade diamond. This same is true for metals. Gold for instance, is graded for purity. 100% gold is just that but it is very soft so it wears easily. Ring that are an alloy are just as shinny to me and are harder so they dont wear as fast.

Miss Candy has also taught me that every woman has their own idea of the perfect ring. And don’t be surprised when she changes her mind.
The bottom line is. What ever make her happy is the right answer. Even if it takes 2 steers

Bought Linda's rings in 1966(her mom wasn;t too pleased) on lay away plan. I think the paymant was $15 a month, no interest, When she put them on, we agreed, they were never replaced. If she wanted a bigger one, she could have it, but the originals never came off. After having the lower bands built up a couple times, she finally had them welded together. When you make $1.50 an hour, $15 a month is a lot. Still where they belong 60 years later.

 

[stoughtonfarmboy]

We buy a half or quarter of beef from a local farmer. Our grandson worked for him in high school about 10 years ago. So, the price for us is not a real question and it also depends on availability of local/area butcher. He has several customers. Not sure if he makes money. He bales his own hay and also on several fields in the area.

I bought my wife a "Linde Star Sapphire" engagement ring in 1971. Never replaced it with a diamond. Been married ever since.

Ken

 

[moresmoke]

Don't the jewelers advertise that you are supposed to spend 2 months wages on a ring?

I gave my wife to be a horseshoe nail rolled into a ring, and a pretty black Percheron. Thankfully the marriage turned out better than the horse.

 

[37chief]

My wife has a real one. Can they recognize a man made diamond? Stan