Farm Director, KC Sheperd, is back talking with Bob Rodenberger, a partner with Stockmans Livestock Marketing, as he gives the latest on the cattle markets. Rodenberger said it has been a wild ride since September.
“There is no black swan,” Rodenberger said. “I think it has got a lot to do with outside money in our industry as far as where we lock in our margins and try to protect ourselves with these downs in this market.”
Rodenberger said prices are ahead of a year ago, but there are also more expenses than a year ago.
“It is no different than what it has been the last 50 years, it is just that our margin decreased so quickly, and we were getting comfortable with that big margin,” Rodenberger said.
Numbers of cattle coming through at Apache are down about 12 percent, Rodenberger said, which is not a surprise considering the number of cows that have sold over the year.
“Twelve percent at our Apache location is 1000 fewer cattle per month than what we did over the last five years,” Rodenberger said.
This drop in numbers did not happen all at once, Rodenberger said, as it has been a slow and steady decrease.
“We have got to have a good spring and the start of a good summer before I think we will talk about retaining heifers to build the cow herd back or for people to get involved in buying cattle,” Rodenberger said.
