Agricultural News
Unprecedented Four-Week Run in Fed Cattle Prices Linked to Solid Export Demand, Strong Markets
Wed, 10 May 2017 12:41:36 CDT
According to Jim Robb, executive director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center, the four-week run-up in slaughter cattle markets and higher wholesale boxed beef trade has been unprecedented. He told Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays it is because certain factors in the marketplace have converged into the perfect storm, so to speak, that has spurred the dramatic leap in prices. He says in particular, strength in the export market has had a lot to do with it.
"This has been the best March that we've had since 2011 in terms of US beef export tonnage," he said, noting that USDA has reported a 25 percent increase. "That export market is clearly part of the reason that packers have had to chase cattle supplies."
And it's not because of winter weather that producers have seen lower carcass weights being pushed through either. In reality, it has been the because of the aggressive marketing that has been done since last fall.
"Now you've just recently had some very difficult winter weather in Kansas and some of our surrounding states but we've had a pretty mild winter up to this point in time," he said. "The marketing rate causing these cattle weights to come down is unprecedented in my career."
Listen to Hays and Robb discuss the role the export market has played in the explosion of fed cattle prices and boxed beef trade, 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.
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