Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is featuring comments from Dr. David Anderson, professor and extension economist for livestock and food product marketing at Texas A&M University. Oklahoma Farm Report colleague, Carey Martin with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network, talked to Anderson about cattle markets and beef demand on the sidelines of the Texas A&M Beef Cattle Shortcourse.
“Even with everything we talk about in the economy, folks are still buying beef,” Anderson said. “Beef is something that is in demand.”
Part of the reason for record-high beef prices, Anderson said, is because beef is in demand and there are tighter supplies. In the next few years, Anderson said it will be a test to see consumers’ ability to continue purchasing beef.
“We are set up for tighter and tighter supplies, which on its own suggests higher prices, and we are going to find a price point that people will pull back from,” Anderson said. “So far, we have not really found that in any broad sense.”
Anderson said one of the “unknowns” when it comes to beef demand is where the price point is that will trigger consumers to move to pork and poultry purchasing over beef.
“There is evidence in the last couple of years of certain cuts that have just gotten too expensive, and you can see it in the data,” Anderson said.
Anderson also talked about rebuilding the cow herd.
“So far, we don’t have a lot of evidence for expansion,” Anderson said. “We have historically low numbers of heifers held back for replacement; we continue to send older cows to market at rates that really suggest we will have fewer cows next year than this year. It doesn’t suggest, so far, a big rebuilding starting.”
The drought will limit some areas of the country, Anderson said, as far as expansion goes.
“That may still be next year off from now,” Anderson said.
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 at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
