Agricultural News
Market Watcher Jim Robb Chalks 2016 Up a Disappointment Despite Some Hard to Find Bright Spots
Fri, 06 Jan 2017 13:00:32 CST
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays spoke with Jim Robb, senior director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center, and asked him for his thoughts on the cattle business, looking back over the past year.
"I would put 2016 kind of in the disappointing category," Robb confided. "Prices eroded and fell more quickly than anticipated. We had more beef production coming on line than we thought there was and more pork production - took a while to adapt to that."
He says by the end of 2016, the markets had found firmer footing. However, while year-to-year decreases were expected, they were not anticipated to the extent that they eventually fell to. Robb explains though that it is important to remember that this was the first time we have seen year-over-year increases in US beef production since 2010.
"We're swimming upstream now in a sense," he said, "and we have been for a couple of years, where prior, we had smaller supplies keeping us looking ahead and being positive on the price front. Then we really flipped that corner."
In contrast, though, Robb does believe we witnessed some positives in 2016.
"I think really how we rebounded out of the depths of those really weak prices did show that the retail marketplace started to pick up," Robb noted. "In that context, I think domestic beef demand held up rather well. It's hard to find a lot of bright spots but I think there were some."
Listen to Hays and Robb's full conversation reflecting on the cattle business in 2016, on today's Beef Buzz.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...