The recent rains has reduced the effects of drought and helped the grassland recover across much of Oklahoma and Texas. That bodes well for cattle producers looking to increase their herd numbers. Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Market Economist Dr. Derrell Peel said this rain is exactly what cattle producers needed.
“I think it’s going to be a pretty significant effect, as we go forward,” Peel said. “The issue for the last several years in the beef industry has been sort of what we had to do, as opposed to what we wanted to do.”
In the last month, the southern plains areas that had the worst drought in that region have received significant amounts of rain. That’s going to allow for herd expansion. Some of these areas have been in drought for so long and will need additional time to recover. Peel thinks this is going to stimulate expansion for the foreseeable future.
“I think we are going to see fairly aggressive expansion pace here in 2015 as we go forward,” Peel said.
As producers began to expand their cattle herd a year ago, there was a big drop in cow culling. Peel said last year cow culling was down nearly 18 percent and is down about 17 percent since the start this year.
“It was hard to imagine at the beginning of the year, we could see another year of that kind of decrease year over year, so far we’re doing it,” Peel said.
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