National Cattlemen Engaging With CME Group To Make Cattle Futures Work As Intended- And At Other Options As Well

Sep 12, 2016

The huge jumps higher and lower on the live cattle and feeder cattle futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange have caused a lot of concern within the beef cattle industry. Colin Woodall, who heads up with the Washington office of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says members of his group have been very clear that everything that can be done to address the volitility issues being seen within the cattle futures needs to be done- that they have value to beef cattle producers and cattlemen do not want to lose these contracts, which have been good risk management tools done through the years.

Woodall says the members of NCBA are telling him that they want and need these tools in place, but they need to work the way in which they were intended.

Woodall's comments are featured in our latest Beef Buzz, as heard on Radio Oklahoma Ag Network stations across the region. He says the NCBA is committed to work with the CME Group, the body that owns and operates the Cattle Futures in their Chicago trading facilitites.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.