Agricultural News
Drought and Other Headwinds Make For Tough Beef Cattle Market Thus Far in 2012
Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:29:12 CDT
We are a little more than halfway through 2012- and it already feels like the US beef cattle market has absorbed a full year or more of market shocks. Don Close with Rabobank was the Market Analyst Keynote at the 2012 Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, and just a few minutes before he took the stage at the OCA concluding session, Farm Director Ron Hays sat down and talked with him about a variety of market related issues.
Close cited several major "shocks" that the market has had to cope with thus far in 2012- including the loss for at least the time being of LFTB in our ground beef supply, the discovery of the fourth BSE case in the US this past April and the rapid development of the 2012 drought across a broad part of the country. These headwinds to the market comes as tighter beef supplies are likely to test how loyal consumers are to beef over the next year or so- and will almost certainly delay beef cow herd expansion for one, two or possibly even three years.
Close believes that while we saw massive cow herd liquidation in 2011 in Oklahoma and Texas due to the exceptional drought of last year- that same level of liquidation will not occur in the midwest this year as drought ravages states like Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and parts of Nebraska. Close believes a lot of acres of corn silage is being harvested this year- much earlier than normal- and that forage material will be helpful in keeping Mama Cows on the farm or ranch.
Today's Beef Buzz features part of our conversation with Close- we will be sharing his ideas about cattle market conditions over the next few days here on the Radio Oklahoma Network as well as on our website, OklahomaFarmReport.Com.
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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