Record Cattle Markets Start to Back Off

Aug 26, 2014

Cattle producers enjoyed record high prices throughout most of the summer.

At the end of July we saw record highs on everything from fat cattle to record highs on cows, yearling and calves right to retail prices to wholesale prices.

Anne Wasko, a Cattle Market Analyst with Cattle Trends at Eastend, Saskatchewan says tight supplies, strong demand, and lower feed costs all played a contributing factor.

She says while we saw some record prices the market is starting to back off:

"Markets don't go straight up forever, I think the market today is going to try to find some of those levels, kind of all of the good news of less pork, less poultry, bigger corn crop, all of those things have come into ther market place, shot the market to its record levels and now we are kind of trying to sort things out from here. All of that good news has been played in, now we start to play forward as we move to 2015," said Wasko.

Wasko says markets are always looking way ahead of us, way ahead of today and tomorrow’s decisions and she believes as producers you need to start thinking about making decisions the same way at home when you sell cattle.

"Not a big surprise, there is no question, the markets are looking at producing less supply of beef on the front end here. At the same time as we go around the next corner, all eyes are starting to get focused on more pork and more poultry later this year and into next. Markets are always looking way in advance of what they see happening today," said Wasko.

Wasko says the feeder cattle and calf side of the market will see the least amount of pressure for the short run but knowing we’re going to see markets come off on the fat cattle side.

Source: PortageOnline

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.