Agricultural News
Tight Supplies, Higher Prices Set Summer Trend for Beef Markets
Wed, 06 Jun 2012 17:13:51 CDT
Memorial Day sales of beef were strong and Erica Rosa-Sanko of the Livestock Market Information Center out of Denver, Colorado, says they are a possible indication of where the beef trade is headed into the 4th of July weekend and throughout the summer.
"Retailers look to be featuring a lot of beef products going into the 4th of July holiday. This summer, ribs and loins, very positive outlook coming out of Memorial Day holiday week, but there are still a lot of concerns on the beef market particularly the consumer demand front. "
Speaking with Erik Atkinson of the K-State Radio Network, Rosa-Sanko says a lot depends on consumers and the impact of economic news on their pocketbooks.
"We did get some economic news last week that indicated some slow growth sill occurring in our economy. Gas prices have moderated some, but still they are relatively high. There's just some questions going on. And we still have relatively lower priced pork and poultry going into the summer."
Cheaper gasoline prices could fatten consumers' wallets, keeping demand high and tight beef supplies overall could also work to keep prices high she said.
"We are in a tight supply-driven market. We've been in this market for quite some time and that's going to continue to support calf and feeder prices particularly as we're looking ahead based on corn crop forecasts-very large crop give or take how the growing season plays out. That's also providing a little bit of support to the calf and feeder market."
Higher carcass weights are also another factor impacting the summer market, Rosen-Sanko says, but this year's weights are not far out of line with historical averages, she said.
"Typically in the summer months we do start to see carcass weights seasonally increase and we are right at that transition where weights bottom out for the year and then they move upwards. There has been concern this year that we have well above year-ago weights, but if you go back a few years they're not that high if we consider the fact we had very good performance this year , feeding performance, mild winter weather the increasing use of beta agonist and how that impacts the performance and the overall weight.
"Really, if you go back, instead of comparing to last year compare to the prior few years, weights are not that large. We're also in more of a tighter calf supply situation."
She said that supplies look to remain tight throughout the rest of the year.
"So, really with the tight supply situation and heavier weights we still have a beef production overall that is not that large as the weights would indicate because we have tight supply-driven impact as well. So I'm not too concerned at this point in time."
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to here more of this week's BEEF BUZZ. The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network- but is also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
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