CENTENNIAL, Colo. (RFD-TV) — The cattle herd remains tight, keeping pressure on prices, while consumers continue to show strong demand for beef.
Ethan Lane with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says the industry has become much more efficient, producing more beef with fewer cattle.
“We’re producing more actual beef in the supply chain than we were 10 years ago. We’re producing as much or more today than we were in the 1970s with 30 or 40 percent less cattle. That efficiency, the carcass sizes that we’re seeing, the added beef on those carcasses, equivalent to about a million extra head in the system last year, if my numbers are correct.”
Lane says cattle producers are doing well right now, but others throughout the supply chain are paying more for those animals.
“Even if it is a great time to be a cow-calf producer and have those calves to market, you know, everyone else down the chain is feeling the pinch as they have to pay more for those cattle. It’s one of those things where our cow-calf producers have certainly spent more than their fair share of time on the losing end of those transactions. It’s incredibly frustrating to, again, see people feeling like cow-calf producers getting a bigger check is somehow a flaw that needs to be addressed, whereas we feel like it’s long past due for them to have some time to make some money and get some debt paid down and make some investments in their operations.”
USDA will provide a new look at the cattle herd when it releases its Cattle on Feed report Friday afternoon.
