KC Sheperd, Farm Director, is back talking with Bob Rodenberger, a Stockman Oklahoma Livestock Marketing partner, as he gives the latest on the cattle markets.
The sale in Apache ran 1,700 head with a strong market this week. “Fat cattle continue to sell at record highs on average,” Rodenberger said. “Last week, the weighted average on fat cattle was $2.02, and this week it was $2.08. There are instances up north where they sell fat cattle for $2.14 to $2.16. We are at another level than we were back in 2014 – ’15 which I swore that I wouldn’t live long enough to see the market that good again, but here we are.”
Rodenberger advises buyers to utilize LRP or other margin protection in the current market conditions.
According to him, the longevity of the markets as they are is largely dependent on external investors who are taking advantage of an opportunity to turn a profit, but are not cattlemen. He suspects that when they decide to get out, prices will fall.
“We saw this in 2022,” he said. “When they get out, they get out. It had nothing to do with fundamentals, but… this is probably what causes a lot of us to hesitate: they took $60 bucks off of that thing in 45 days and fundamentally, there wasn’t any reason to break the market that hard.”
He said that wheat pastures across the state are short and overgrazed but that producers are making up for it as the cattle coming through the sale barn still look good.
