Cattle Market Update
From Steve Kay, editor and publisher of Cattle Buyers Weekly. Catch a roundup of each week’s cattle-market activity every Friday afternoon! View the market review now!
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Prices
Heavier is Better
If you have a 600-lb. steer, hold off on selling him. He'll likely pencil out a lot better as an eight-weight. That's the strategy of Eddie Womack and...
Recession & demand
The fourth edition of Power of Meat, a joint study by the American Meat Institute and the Food Marketing Institute, finds the recession is affecting meat-department...
Stocker lending is widely available
Perhaps because the stocker cattle business is so liquid and the value of gain continues to offer profit potential there doesn't seem to be any credit...
Credit Crunch
No doubt, these are tough consumer times. Market losses in 2008 alone total more than $6 trillion; the Dow Jones is off by around 40% from its Oct. 9,...
Cow-calf lessons
The financial woes facing the U.S. economy serve as a sharp reminder for Lyle Perman. The Lowry, SD, cowman and his family endured the ag-financial crisis...
Feedyards left with markets
We're the tail on the dog. That's how Scott Keeling, owner and manager of Keeling Cattle Feeders at Hereford, TX, describes the effect of the world's...
Long-Distance Blues
It's hard to say who is the most stressed by the 1,200-mile ride to feedlot country, the calves or the person paying the shipping bill. While exorbitant...
Lowering your breakeven calf price
Benchmarking is among the most powerful ranch-management tools available to ranch managers, and one of the least used. A key reason for its lack of use...
Marketing 2008 calves
Part V in a series of changing corn environment. The corn market is proving to be as volatile as predicted. With the impact of the Midwest floods less...
Best Guesses In The New Age
Ask a dozen folks how to plan for the next 12 months and you'll get plenty of discussion based on myriad qualifications and assumptions, but few confident...
The golden age of agriculture?
Economist Bill Helming says he's generally bearish on the overall U.S. economy and expects it to suffer a serious and painful recession within the 2008-2009...
Price forecasting part II
Ranching's economics are changing. Preliminary data suggest the cost of running a beef cowherd has increased 15-20% in the last two years. Altered production...
A Glimmer Of Hope
Like wolf tracks in the snow, the warning signs have been unmistakable. There's risk out there in the market big risk. Price volatility in the cattle...
More High Times
If you measure success by the kind of song you whistle when it comes time to market your calves, 2007 was most likely a happy tune. Success in '08 may...
Big Mac is 40
McDonald's signature Big Mac sandwich turned 40 years old on Aug. 22, debuting in 1967 for just 45 at a single restaurant in Uniontown, PA. The burger,...
Blip Or Bust?
Two things are certain: Fed cattle are commanding the highest prices in history, and the Beef Demand Index (BDI) calculated to gauge consumer beef demand...
Gone Forever?
Say all you want about historically high cattle prices, the longest sustained period of cow-calf profitability on record, robust consumer beef demand...
Grab The Money & Go
Even though feeder cattle supplies may be tight, Jay Gray doesn't worry about where the next yearlings are coming from. They're right outside my window...
Rising Feed Costs Force Change
Cow-calf producers face the continued challenge of rising feed costs. In an ethanol-dominated world, it isn't going to get any better...
Consider Price Protection On Your Fall Calves
With the unheard-of volatility in corn prices and a virtual guarantee that high-cost feed won't go away, cow-calf producers might be wise to consider some sort of price protection to ensure against a wreck waiting to happen. ...
Meat Industry Competition Legislation Debuts
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced the "Competitive and Fair Agricultural Markets Acts to "correct deficiencies in USDA's enforcement over agricultural markets and provided needed protections ...
Crush Em
It's a marketing tool that can help protect cattle feeders from $1 higher corn prices in what's become one of the most volatile periods ever for cattle and corn markets...
Weekly Average Diesel Price Drops 7.4˘/Gal
Change In Livestock Contracts Arbitration Eyed
2006 State Of Industry Report
BEEF magazine's 2006 State Of The Industry Report is available at: http://beef-mag.com/advertisers/research/. Compiled for BEEF magazine by Iowa State...
From Our Columnists
Tracking failure
"Hard to believe six years have passed since the cow bearing BSE stole Christmas in the U.S. Harder to believe there's still no cattle and beef industry...
The next decade: Part I
I truly believe ranching in the next decade will not be "business as usual." Thus, my next few columns will look to stimulate ranchers'...
No Silver Bullet
I think I can speak for all the “Vet's Opinion” authors in saying that we enjoy feedback on our columns, particularly when a correspondent gives...


























