Agricultural News
CattleFax CEO Says Industry Working Hard to Create Transparency and Limit Volatility in the Markets
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 12:42:03 CST
Randy Blach, who leads the producer-run market analysis contractor, CattleFax, told Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays that the idea of getting more transparency into the cattle markets is a good thing that will benefit everybody involved. He says tools such as the online cattle trading platform, FedCattleExchange.com, have already begun to raise that level of transparency and suggests that this is something the industry has really needed.
"Price discovery is such a fundamental part of the way we do business and it is all the way up and down the system, and at the cash level it's imperative," Blach said. "I don't see wholesale or retail markets as being an opportunity for us to establish a base price."
FedCattleExchange.com gives traders a test of the value of cattle earlier in the week, as opposed to watching whatever activity happens late in the day on Friday afternoons.
"That's not very helpful for anybody in the marketplace," Blach said. "Anything we can do to see points of price discovery, earlier in the week, will be very, very helpful for what we're all trying to achieve in the long-run."
In the meantime though, Blach says the industry should keep an eye on the things that exaggerate the market trends that cause high degrees of volatility, such as keeping trade avenues open, monitoring cash flow in and out of the market and managing risk.
"I think the industry is working very hard on that," he said, "and trying to figure out how do we tweak this and tweak that."
Listen to Hays' full interview for Blach's complete thoughts on creating transparency in the cattle market, 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...
