Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is talking with Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Dr. Derrell Peel, about cattle prices, herd rebuilding, and the impact of drought conditions on Oklahoma ranchers.
“We have seen a tremendous uptrend in markets,” Peel said. “It really started almost a year ago now, in the fourth quarter of 2022.”
Feeder cattle and fed cattle prices have all taken off, Peel said, and have increased continuously throughout the year. This trend, he added, is expected to continue going forward.
“Over the last six weeks or so, we have had extremely dry weather,” Peel said. “Very little, if any, precipitation in most cases, and so now we find ourselves, again, with drought conditions redeveloping pretty quickly here in Oklahoma.”
Because of the moisture received early enough in the summer, Peel said a good amount of hay was made available. Pasture conditions were good, he added, but those have eroded sharply in the last few weeks with this hot and dry weather.
“I think producers are rightly taking it pretty cautiously by going forward,” Peel said. “I think we are in better shape in terms of hay supplies going into the winter in terms of cattle numbers, but I think probably we are not likely to see a lot of aggressive movements on the part of producers to move forward here until we can see some longer term and little bit more fundamental improvement in moisture and forage conditions.”
In most cases, Peel said the overall data would suggest that Oklahoma is probably not seeing a lot of additional liquidation of beef cow herds.
“I think producers are down to a level in many cases after two to three years of drought,” Peel said. “They are down to minimal levels, and they can probably hang onto those, so we are not seeing much additional liquidation, but certainly, the conditions at this point would suggest that we have no real opportunity to think about turning that around and restocking or rebuilding those herds at this point and time.”
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