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Sky-high input prices coupled with ongoing drought conditions in much of the country are exacerbating the sell-offs.
National Cattleman’s Beef Association CEO Colin Woodall says this year’s drought is more widespread than the regional droughts seen in years past, when producers could send their cattle to other parts of the country to graze until it started raining again.
But so much of the country is in a drought.
“There’s no place to go because everybody is struggling to find the forage they need to feed their cattle,” Woodall told FOX Business.
“We do expect the prices to continue upwards, but everybody has to remember that it’s not cattle producers setting that price.
“It’s all about costs. When you look at those who make a decision to send their cattle to market to either thin down their herd or completely eliminate their herd, it is always going to be attributed to the increase of their input costs. And that is everything from the cost of feed, cost of hay and cost of diesel for tractors, diesel for the truck, fertilizer costs. And there’s so many things that go into producing cattle that the producers just don’t have any control over.”
The increased number of cows and heifers sold for slaughter means herd depletion will continue, and building it back will take years.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4082031/posts
What is being done to us is so obvious. We have run out of time.
This fits nicely with your post.
This years harvest, with all of Biden’s production cost increases, is starting to hit the market. These farmers realize they can’t afford to feed this breeding stock through to next harvest. With the breeding stock sold off, next year’s beef prices will be off the charts. Guess what, we’re not going to be able to pay for bread coming from this year’s harvest either.
I overheard a conversation between two women at the Dr’s office , one a rancher saying that the drought this year was going to cause a single cut of hay this year, so they were going to have to go to the grain store and reducing the herd.
Just serendipity.
“It’s all about costs.
Cattle production is much more centralized than it used to be. A lot of it is produced by investment by individuals in limited liability companies, not banks as much.
That said, it is a complex system. This has all happened before. We have not taken the cycles out of agriculture as much as we have tried.