Agricultural News
Derrell Peel: Analyzes PEDv & Weather on Livestock Price Trend
Wed, 28 May 2014 10:39:32 CDT
A dramatic change in the weather pattern changes the outlook for the southern plains. The Memorial Day Weekend rainfall was significant for the the region that has battled drought for the last four years. Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell S. Peel says getting heavy rains across western Oklahoma, west Texas and eastern New Mexico brings renewed optimism for producers.
"This is a dramatic event, " Peel said. " It was a heavy enough rain in many cases to run some water, that will rebuild some ponds."
"Its very timely from a forage standpoint as well," he said. "It will certaintly iniatiate some forage growth and if we get any follow through at all, we can salvage part of 2014 from a forage standpoint."
Memorial Day Weekend marks the start of the summer grilling season. Peel will continue to track how higher beef prices are impacting consumer demand through the holiday.
"Thats pretty key, obvoiusly in terms of beef demand in the face of these high prices, so we'll will be watching that closely," Peel said. "Weather conditions in the southern plains were wet, which was probably a cause for celebration, but it might have impacted things, but in general we'll just have to wait and see a little bit later here, what the indications are for beef movement during this period."
The hog industry also continues to see higher prices from the impact of the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus, known as PEDv. For the last year the virus has dropped hog numbers.
"Nobody really knows for sure, but some where between 7 and 10 million baby pigs have been killed as a result of this disease," Peel said. " There is no effective real control at this time, so it continues to effect the market. "
The virus has tighted pork supplies and slaughter numbers are down simply due to the lack of pigs. Peel says hog farmers are making up for the drop in hog numbers with heavier carcass weights. He anticipates it will take at least through the rest of this year to move through the impacts of this disease, so it will continue to impact hog prices for several more months.
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