Cattle prices are a small part of the picture.Depressed grain prices and ever increasing input costs are putting us farmers in a bind.
Fuel prices should be down sharply, and chemicals down significantly. If anything, costs should be moving down, but not as fast as commodities. In addition, with the ending of the drought in much of the country, irrigation costs should be lower, and feed, including hay, should be sharply lower.
The biggest problem may be that they treated abnormally high prices as the new normal, and are having problems as prices return to the baseline.
I do agree with glorgau that retail prices haven't yet tracked the wholesale decline.
“....ever increasing input costs are putting us farmers in a bind.”
My PG&E electric bills (Central California) for my cold storage (refrigeration)is being charged at
$.39835 per KWH !
WTF do they want me to do turn my refrigeration off during their peak hours ?
A home owner pays about $.15 per KWH
If you are the poor ... which I am, they pay even less .... unless you are a small farm.
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