News Update
October 24, 2016
Balance in Beef Profitability
Each segment of the beef industry brings with it certain challenges and opportunities, especially during times of unpredictable markets. Cattle feeders are perhaps most affected by swings in prices and input costs, and, according to AgResource Company President Dan Basse, achieving profitability across the beef chain requires a certain balance from the cow-calf producer to the feeder and the packer.
“In the beef market we call it the barbell approach,” Basse said. “In other words, the cow-calf man on one end of the barbell has done very well for the last two or three years. In 2013, he made over $500 a head, this year maybe $100 a head. Then we have the packer, which today is making $80 a head. In between those two segments of the industry is the feedlot. They’re looking at losses between $50 to $70 a head.”
Hear more from Basse in this week’s The Angus Report online. You can also watch the show at 1:30 p.m. CST Saturday and 7:30 a.m. each Monday on RFD-TV.
Record Beef Production for September
Commercial red meat production for the United States totaled 4.32 billion pounds (lb.) in September, up 4% from the 4.14 billion lb. produced in September 2015.
Beef production, at 2.18 billion lb., was 4% above the previous year. Cattle slaughter totaled 2.62 million head, up 6% from September 2015. The average live weight was down 12 lb. from the previous year, at 1,370 lb.
Pork production totaled 2.13 billion lb., up 4% from the previous year. Hog slaughter totaled 10.2 million head, up 5% from September 2015. The average live weight was unchanged from the previous year, at 280 lb.
Lamb and mutton production, at 12.0 million lb., was down 2% from September 2015. Sheep slaughter totaled 193,300 head, slightly above last year. The average live weight was 125 lb., down 3 lb. from September a year ago.
For more information, view the NASS news release online.
R-CALF USA Presents Priorities for New Congress
In a prepared statement presented this week during the 2018 Farm Bill listening session sponsored by Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.), R-CALF USA said the need for major change is urgent if Congress wants to prevent the U.S. cattle industry from going the way of the packer-controlled poultry, hog and sheep industries.
Bullard described the U.S. cattle industry as an industry where 4 of every 10 ranchers in business 30 years ago are gone today, where cattle supplies have shrunk to 70-year lows, where domestic production has shrunk to a 20-year low, and where the cattle cycle, which historically provides several years of strong prices, is now dysfunctional. He said cattle prices have been falling farther and faster than any time in history, despite historically low supplies and strong beef demand.
For more information, view the R-CALF news release online.
Pasture, Range and Forage Insurance Deadline Nov. 15
Over the years, Texas ranchers and landowners have learned that growing grass for cattle is a risky business. Not so much dangerous, but very dependent on the weather.
For that reason, DeDe Jones, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service risk management specialist in Amarillo, said producers need to consider the perennial Pasture, Range and Forage Insurance, designed to protect livestock and hay producers against production losses.
The 2016 sign-up and acreage reporting deadline for this USDA Risk Management Agency program is Nov. 15. Premiums will be billed Sept. 1, 2017, Jones said.
Payment is not determined by individual damages, but rather area losses based on a grid system, Jones explained. Producers can select any portion of acres to insure, but they must also select between a minimum of two, two-month intervals and a maximum of six, two-month intervals per year.
For more information, view the Texas AgriLife news release online.
NMSU Hosting Sustainable Agriculture Conference
Solar radiation, temperature and precipitation are the main drivers of crop growth and yield. As a result, agriculture has always been highly dependent on climate patterns and variations.
Scientific consensus has shown that the effects of climate change are already occurring in New Mexico and may become substantial in the near future. The cycle of droughts in the southwestern United States has increased during the past decades and a recent study is indicating that the Southwest may have already transitioned to a drier climate.
The New Mexico Sustainable Agricultural Conference, “Building Climate-Resilient Agriculture in New Mexico,” will provide information that will help farmers plan for the future. The event is sponsored by USDA’s Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.
The free conference will be hosted from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wed., Nov. 30, at the University of New Mexico, Valencia Campus, 280 La Entrada Road, Los Lunas.
For more information, visit the Angus Journal Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events.
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