In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays speaks with Texas Cattle Feeders Association President and CEO Ben Weinheimer about the reopening of Mexican border ports and what feedlot operators are seeing from the cattle coming into the U.S.
Mexican Border Reopening Progress
Weinheimer says cattle feeders have been pleased with the progress made through the staged reopening of the border, with Douglas, Arizona, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, now accepting cattle. “Overall, we’ve been very pleased with the progress that’s been made thus far to work through the staged reopening of the border ports,” Weinheimer said.
He says the ports will need time to find a rhythm as personnel work through the logistics of moving cattle while following animal health inspection and treatment protocols designed to prevent New World Screwworm from entering the United States. “It’s going to take still both of those ports a few weeks to kind of find a rhythm and work through logistics of bringing those animal up like they have historically,” Weinheimer said.
He noted that USDA APHIS personnel, Mexican animal health officials and other port staff are all involved in making sure cattle meet the requirements for trade to resume. “These are USDA APHIS employees and the veterinarians and animal health technicians that really are hands-on throughout that entire process to make sure that all of the due diligence is being done relative to cattle inspections, treatments, documentation, animal identification that are stipulated as part of this resumption of trade with Mexico.”
Santa Teresa Handles Significant Volume
Weinheimer says Santa Teresa is an especially important port because it has historically handled a large share of Mexican cattle entering the United States. “On average prior to any of the screwworm interruptions in port operations it would cross on the order of around 43% of the cattle annually,” Weinheimer said.
He says the infrastructure at Santa Teresa is substantial, with significant facilities and personnel needed to process cattle properly and efficiently.
Larger Mexican Feeder Cattle Coming North
Early reports from feedlot operators indicate the cattle currently crossing the border are somewhat heavier than those traditionally coming into the U.S. “Our members are reporting the same. You know, they’re seeing some larger yearlings being crossed currently,” Weinheimer said.
He says exporters in the northern Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua are moving some of their larger backgrounded feeder cattle first, which could eventually create room for lighter-weight cattle. “They kind of expect these larger cattle to continue to come to us here during the month of October, and then as they get into November, December, hopefully start to see some lighter weight cattle,” Weinheimer said.
Those lighter cattle are particularly useful for feedlots in the region because they can be placed on winter wheat and help manage costs. “Those lightweight cattle service well. They’re generally pretty resilient on the health side. They work well for, you know, backing up the cost of gain on some winter wheat.”
Feedlots Pleased With Border Progress
Looking ahead, Weinheimer says TCFA members are pleased to see the reopening process moving forward and are hopeful more ports will open as conditions allow. “They seem to be pleased with the operations to date. Glad to see that at least two of the ports are open,” Weinheimer said.
He says the industry is now watching for increased cattle throughput, additional port reopenings and a transition toward lighter-weight feeder cattle later in the year. “The outlook forward is that they’ll increase the throughput of those ports, open up additional ports, work through some of these larger feeder cattle, and then get into some of the lighter-weight cattle that we have historically crossed from Mexico.”
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
