Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with the Chief Executive Officer of National Livestock, Robert York. Hays and York talk about the state of the cattle industry.
National Livestock is based in Oklahoma City at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and consists of businesses spread out across the country focused on cattle. York and his team have the chance to interact with cattle producers across the country on a daily basis, including here in the Southern Plains.
York describes the morale of cattle producers around the country to be cautiously optimistic.
“They definitely are excited about the high prices,” York said.
Because of rising prices, York said he believes there will be opportunity to improve or replace those things that have needed attention on cattle operations for quite some time.
On the other hand, York said producers have concerns regarding labor and rising interest rates.
“This is a lot different feel than it was in 2014,” York said. “Early on, when prices ramped up in the beginning of 2014 to ’15, you just saw so many heifers retained. Even heifers that shouldn’t have been retained, you just saw people looking for the opportunity to sell a bred heifer and make money.”
This time around, York said he is seeing a decline in producers because of more retirements and age.
“Whether it be labor or just the headaches of keeping an operation going, it is just not quite as attractive to as many younger people as it was to maybe a couple of older generations,” York said.
One thing that has become more popular over the years, York said, has been the use of Livestock Risk Protection. On that note, York said Livestock Risk Services has recently been added to the National Family of livestock-related businesses.
“A lot of customer interest in LRP and lots of good reasons for that,” York said. “You can get a good price on cattle, you don’t have to come up with the money until the calves are sold, and you don’t have to deal with margin calls…”
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 for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
