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Beef Buzz News

David Anderson Says Cow Herd Rebuilding Provides Opportunities for Younger Ranchers

Dr. David Anderson, Extension livestock market economist at Texas A&M, says the drought has drastically cut the mama cow herds in the Southern Great Plains, but the drought will eventually end and the work of rebuilding will commence. He says market profitability will get the ball rolling, but there is still uncertainty in the process.


"The uncertainty comes from 'Well, who's going to do that? Who's going to expand?' We talk a lot about ranchers getting older, farmers getting older and, after a while, it's pretty tough to keep doing that work at some point. So, if it's not those producers who are going to expand or people who sold out their whole herd in the drought, are they going to come back? A lot of those people may not come back. But the land is still there and, if you're out of drought, it's growing grass. If you're going to get a return on that investment that you have, that asset that you have, that land, what are you going to do? The owner of that land is going to look at 'How do I get some return?' And, for range and pasture lands, the reason they're in pasture is because that's what they're good for.


"As an economist, that provides an opportunity. If calf prices are high enough to get people to expand, it seems certainly plausible to me that perhaps this is the trigger, the incentive, the opportunity for this intergenerational change we've talked a lot about in agriculture over the last number of years. With older ranchers, older producers, how do we get to that level? How do we change that? How do we get those new producers in? Well, they may not own that ranch like they used to, they may lease it, and expand cow herds that way."


Anderson says if current trends continue, we will see less production of beef in 2013 and 2014. He says beef may even fall to the third place from second as the most-produced meat in the U.S.



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. 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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