In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays features comments with Dr. Derrell Peel, livestock market economist, who says the cattle market has recently taken “a bit of a pause.” Speaking on the K-State Radio Network, Peel explained, “Cattle markets have kind of taken a little bit of a pause here lately. Broadly speaking, we’ve seen a little bit of pullback. I think this is just the market kind of taking a breath in many cases.” He added that the industry is “transitioning to fall and winter markets,” and that this seasonal shift is leading to softer momentum following the summer run.
On the boxed beef side, Peel noted that prices have dropped sharply in recent weeks after record highs earlier this year. “We’ve seen a fairly dramatic decline in box beef prices in the past few weeks,” he said. “Now that’s from record levels, and so they’re still pretty high, but I think a lot of eyes are on it because we’ve seen a fairly persistent decline here lately.” Peel believes the shift is not due to collapsing demand but a seasonal transition from summer grilling cuts to products geared toward holiday demand, such as “rib eyes or rib rolls for holiday products.”
Turning to conditions at the ranch level, Peel described the usual fall culling season and noted that some producers in Oklahoma and other regions sold calves earlier than normal. “Seasonally, we normally see a lot more culling in the fall,” he said. “We have noticed that some producers sold calves early… and that could be followed by early culling.” While there has been “some pressure on those cull cow prices,” Peel said it has been “pretty minimal up to this point.”
As for what producers are thinking this fall, Peel said many are weighing whether to retain heifers or continue downsizing their herds. “There are still a lot of producers talking about the decision about potentially retaining heifers and thinking about any herd expansion,” he explained. “Cull cow prices have been very attractive… so I think there’s a lot of issues there for producers to think about in terms of cull cow values, heifer values, that tradeoff, if you will.” He emphasized that these herd management decisions are crucial as producers look toward 2026 and beyond.
Peel also discussed a recent trip with Florida cattle producers who visited feedlots in the Texas Panhandle to see where their calves end up. “They were specifically looking at where those Florida calves go when they leave Florida—they almost all leave—and where they end up,” he said. Feedlots, he noted, are facing challenges maintaining cattle numbers. “Most of these feedlots are seeing their numbers decline… there’s a lot of effort to try to find cattle,” Peel explained. Despite low feed costs and a strong corn crop, he said, “the cost of the feeder cattle is a real challenge,” adding that feedlots “are anticipating more struggles in the coming months.”
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.
