Cattle Economics

What is Beef Demand Doing?

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:07:00 +0000

If you judge beef demand by wholesale values, you likely turned a little queasy in March, thinking about those extra replacement heifers prowling the pasture.

Cattle Economics

Managing For Margin More Important Today Than Ever

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 15:17:00 +0000

“Most of my life I made a living trying to figure out which way the markets would move and to what degree; and I was pretty successful at it,” John Rakestraw said at the recent Mid-South Stocker Conference.

Cattle Economics

Economic Signals Are In Place For Restocking To Begin

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:49:00 +0000

“The economic signals are in place for restocking to begin this year,” says Randy Blach, CattleFax CEO. “All we need now is a little encouragement from Mother Nature.”

Cattle Economics

Beef Exports Shatter Records

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:05:00 +0000

Beef exports finished the year at 1.287 million metric tons (mt) valued at $5.42 billion. This broke the 2003 volume record of 1.274 million mt and easily surpassed the 2010 value record of $4.08 billion. Export volume was 21% larger than in 2010, with value up 33%.

Cattle Economics

Expansion Signals Grow

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:03:00 +0000

Though cow-calf producers are not yet in expansion mode, generally speaking, Glynn Tonsor, Kansas State University agricultural economist, says the first signal of them leaning that direction came in the Jan. 1 Cattle Inventory report, which indicated a 1.4% year-to-year increase in the number of beef replacement heifers.

Cattle Economics

More Cattle on Feed and Reduced Slaughter are Losing Proposition

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

“Feedlot-bound cattle seem to be nearing a price ceiling as the fed-cattle market has stalled out and packers have cut kills to limit their immediate needs,” AMS analysts said Friday. “Recent weeks have seen the lightest non-holiday week cattle slaughter since March 2009, when a late-season snowstorm caused plant closings.”

Cattle Economics

Positive Auction Trade Gives Way to Bearish Friday

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:53:00 +0000

Stocker cattle and calves, as well as feeder-weight cattle, continued pushing the market higher last week.

Cattle Economics

Crossbreeding Is Becoming Cool Again

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:42:00 +0000

While manicuring the individual trees of cattle performance traits, the cow-calf industry apparently missed the proverbial forest.

At least it has if you consider that three primary measures of cow productivity – weaning weight, pregnancy rate and pounds weaned per cow exposed – are static to declining. That’s according to data presented by David Lalman, Oklahoma State University Extension beef specialist, and Stan Bevers, Texas AgriLife Extension agricultural economist (see “U.S.Beef Cow Productivity Is Stagnant").

Cattle Economics

Reproduction Is A Key To Improving Ranch Profitability

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:25:00 +0000

“In today’s changing and volatile input markets, it is critical that, as individual producers and as an industry, we examine the economic efficiency of our production systems and be prepared to modify some of the rules of thumb that have guided decisions in the past.”

Cattle Economics

Beef Exports Up 26%, A 39% Increase In Value

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

“There’s one way for our country to get out of this economic recession. We have to export our way to prosperity. Do you think China became an economic powerhouse by selling to its own people? They exported. They exported their way out of poverty.”

Cattle Economics

Even With High Prices, Be Sure To Weigh The Return

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Depending on which side of the biscuit you butter, these are fixing to be halcyon days in the cow-calf business. At least they are judging by the chatter you hear about how much bred heifers and cows are going to be worth heading into next year.

Cattle Economics

The Stocker Cattle Business Is A Margin Business

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:00:00 +0000

“A pet peeve of mine is that those of us in the cattle business are responsible for driving young men and women out of this business,” says Pete Bonds of Bonds Ranch at Saginaw, TX. “This is a tremendous business, and you have to look at it as a business and not as a cattle way of life”

Cattle Economics

Value Of Gain Is Record High

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:01:00 +0000

If there was ever a time to be in the stocker business, this may be it, at least when it comes to value of gain. "Heavy-feeder prices increased to new seasonal highs in early July and are still holding at remarkably strong levels," says Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist. "The rollback between calf and feeder prices is very narrow; almost zero in some cases, resulting in very high stocker value of gain."

Cattle Economics

Highest Return Cattle Producers Hold Down Costs

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 19:07:00 +0000

Assuming that Mother Nature allows the luxury of options, deciding whether to sell sooner or later heading into the fall marketing season is shaping up to be one of those puzzles wrapped in an enigma, more so than usual

Cattle Economics

Preconditioning Still Pays

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:54:00 +0000

Since the value of gain continues to increase with calf prices, preconditioning can still pay for the same reasons it always has.

Cattle Economics