News Update
January 6, 2016
Cattle Market Transition
Cow-calf producers are entering a market very different from recent years, says Jim Robb of the Colorado-based Livestock Information Center. Markets won’t likely experience the record-highs of 2014 as the nation rebuilds inventories.
In fact, Robb expects prices to trend lower through 2018 and sees a little export growth in the next year — but there are ways to find continued value.
“Things have changed. I think especially long yearling programs and grazing programs are difficult to pencil. Out in cow-calf country purebred operations are doing rather well. You got a couple more pretty darn good years ahead. The feedlot side has to heal up a lot,” Robb said.
He also said 2014 was probably the second best cattle feeding year ever. While 2015 will go down in the books as the worst: “So, we’re in transition in the cattle markets, and we need to stand back and look at how we’re marketing our calves and what our plans are in this sort of evolving economic market.”
View this week’s full episode of The Angus Report online. You can also catch the show at 5 p.m. CST this evening on RFD-TV, as well as 1:30 p.m. CST Saturday and 7:30 a.m. CST each Monday morning.
Apply to Attend the Young Cattlemen’s Conference
For the 15th year, the Angus Foundation will again sponsor a young Angus leader to attend the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Young Cattlemen’s Conference (YCC). The application deadline is Jan. 11, and the application can be found on the Angus Foundation website.
The YCC offers young leaders the chance to see firsthand and better understand all aspects of the beef industry. Attendees participate in a nationwide tour of the beef production chain from the ranch to the feedlot and to the packing plant, through marketing and regulatory affairs, and finally ending at consumer foodservice.
The Angus Foundation’s sponsorship covers travel costs and registration fees. The applicant must be between 25 and 50 years old and must also be a member of the NCBA.
For more information, please view the full Angus news release online.
Angus Bull Sales to Support 2016 NJAS (Correction)
A correction has been made to the contact information of the participating breeders.
Please view this corrected release.
Give Hay the Boot
One of the happiest days of Bass Hyatt’s cattle career came from a divorce. Most assuredly not from Sandra, his wife and partner of 45 years, but from his hay operation.
“I don’t have to start up the tractors in the winter. I don’t have to make hay. I got rid of the hay equipment, and we don’t have the maintenance or fuel costs to run it,” Hyatt gloats.
“Our hay field was 7 miles away, and with these curvy roads I almost got run over twice,” adds the Brasstown, N.C., producer.
The journey toward Hyatt’s hayfree zone started in 1997 when he retired from his career at the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) office. He began clearing pastures and improving the genetics in his commercial herd.
“That’s when he started looking into rotational grazing,” Sandra recalls.
For more information, please view the full Angus Beef Bulletin article online.
How Will Weather Impact Grazing Conditions?
Maybe it’s because he grew up on a ranch in a part of the country where rain is often scarce. It’s surely because he’s been fascinated by weather ever since he was a high school student in Limon, Colo. The fact is, TV weatherman Brian Bledsoe is perpetually worried about the next dry spell.
“I’m always thinking about drought. It is the worst kind of weather phenomenon,” said the Colorado Springs meteorologist. “Cattle producers should be thinking about drought, too, and prepare for it.”
Bledsoe talked about what he foresees weather-wise to an audience of cattle producers gathered for Range Beef Cow Symposium XXIV Nov. 17-19 in Loveland, Colo. He said that outside of a few dry spots, much of cow country is in “pretty good shape.” Yet Bledsoe thinks his worst weather woe is likely to return in the not-too-distant future.
For more information, please view the full Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA online.
Heart of America Grazing Conference
Midwestern forage and livestock producers can get the latest research-based information at the Heart of America Grazing Conference.
Hosted by the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council and the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, the conference begins the afternoon of Jan. 25 and goes through the afternoon of Jan. 26 at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Lexington. One- and two-day registrations are available.
This year’s conference will feature sessions on three topics: curing fescue toxicity, alfalfa management and extending the grazing season. Speakers are grazing specialists from UK, the University of Tennessee, the USDA’s Agriculture Research Service and Kentucky forage and livestock producers.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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