What variables affect the cattle market?

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wbvs58":3e792am6 said:
Our cattle herd seems to be either selling off due to drought or in a rebuilding phase with prices to match.

Ken
same goes on here,folks were dumping cattle off at stockyards,, summer before last. first pastures went,which was bad enough.. But water sources went dry..ponds, wells, creeks..some of the survivors benefitted buying cheap cattle.. Other lost their butts giving them away...comrodery be damed apparently..
 
Things here seem to be affected by the weather ; first local and then across the country. Also the amount of hay left over from the previous year. A couple years ago prices were through the roof due to rebuilding of herds that were sold off for mostly drought conditions further south and west. Now the herds seem to be rebuilding and heifer retention is high so prices are down alot. We were dealing with the JBS plant closure in Pa for awhile, and pound/cull cow prices were down and have only rebounded a bit. If there is a surplus of grains/commodities near the feedlots then feeder prices will usually rebound a bit.
Our water situation has been very iffy. Dry last fall, no real moisture until here recently and still not a whole lot. Ponds way down, many creeks slow or not running and springs and wells going dry. I think that is the number one with pasture/hay availability number 2.
 
sim.-ang.king":2dae5ge8 said:

Yes the processors sure get into the cheap cattle when there is a sell off and are not the least bit charitable and don't give a cent more than they can get away with. I have seen them at the buying rail and they just take turns in buying a pen so they don't compete. Turn the tables when supply is scarce as in the rebuilding phase and you get the sob stories that they are not making money but losing, they have short memories of how they treated you just a short time ago.

Ken
 
RanchMan90":2yhpcf69 said:
What variables affect the cattle market in your opinion? Such as commodity prices, weather, import, export, etc...
If some rich investor wakes up with the trots it seems to mess it up
 
As stated, supply and demand. Marketing and availability of alternative protein choices and their prices. Many of the issues previously posted directly impact supply and/or demand for beef. Weather, crop prices, etc just to name a few
 
The closure of the JBS plant in Pa directly affected the cull cow market here. There were more cull cows than the other places could process, so prices fell way off. Finally they got it resolved; supposedly had rat manure in the plant/meat? and it has been back up since late Nov I think. But there was a backlog of cull cows and prices took until mid Jan to come back much and they are still not great $40's to upper $50's / 100 wt.
 
Hum good question:

Dry weather
Wet weather
Hot weather
Cold weather
Dem elected to office
Rep elected to office
Certain diets
Good corn crop
Bad corn crop
Mad cow disease
PETA
Fuel cost
Imports
Exports

I am sure I missed a lot!

Gizmom
 

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