If you’re like me, these new price levels require a whole different mindset. The following may help in adapting

Troy Marshall 2, BEEF Contributing Editor

February 10, 2011

1 Min Read
A Primer For New Prices

If you’re like me, these new price levels require a whole different mindset. The following may help in adapting;

  • When someone says “150” when talking about feeder cattle, they are talking about price per pound and not per head.

  • $1,800 bred heifers doesn’t mean a lucky cattleman found a crazy cattleman.

  • When talking about a bull sale, $4,000 is not referring to the top-end herd sire prospect but rather an average.

  • Corn prices and feeder cattle can move up together.

  • The reason a $150 profit on calves isn’t enough to spark expansion is that it’s not enough to buy a tank of diesel on the feed truck.

  • The old rules of thumb don’t work. Even at $1.50/lb., 15 calves won’t buy a pickup truck.

  • A $12 swing in prices isn’t necessarily an annual variation in prices; it might be a monthly swing.

  • When we talk about big players in the futures market, we won’t be referring to packers, large feeding complexes or grain traders. We’ll be referring to fund money from people who don’t know the difference between a steer and a heifer.

  • With soaring input prices, product prices and land values, one has to be careful of coming down with “Washington disease,” where additional zeroes make dollar amounts seem like monopoly money.

  • While $300/head profits seem astronomical, that’s still likely less than a 3% return on dollars invested.

  • The economic growth of China’s middle class may be more important than domestic growth.

About the Author(s)

Troy Marshall 2

BEEF Contributing Editor

Troy Marshall is a multi-generational rancher who grew up in Wheatland, WY, and obtained an Equine Science/Animal Science degree from Colorado State University where he competed on both the livestock and World Champion Horse Judging teams. Following college, he worked as a market analyst for Cattle-Fax covering different regions of the country. Troy also worked as director of commercial marketing for two breed associations; these positions were some of the first to provide direct links tying breed associations to the commercial cow-calf industry.

A visionary with a great grasp for all segments of the industry, Troy is a regular opinion contributor to BEEF Cow-Calf Weekly. His columns are widely reprinted and provide in-depth reporting and commentary from the perspective of a producer who truly understands the economics and challenges of the different industry segments. He is also a partner/owner in Allied Genetic Resources, a company created to change the definition of customer service provided by the seedstock industry. Troy and his wife Lorna have three children. 

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