NASHVILLE, TENN. (RFD NEWS) — Tight cattle supplies have kept prices elevated, but analysts say the industry is adapting in ways that look different from previous cattle cycles.
Trader and friend of RFD News, Chris Swift, said producers have been slow to expand the nation’s cattle herd, forcing changes in how cattle are fed and marketed.
“It has changed dramatically. So interesting.” Swift tells RFD News. “It’s a six-year-long bull market. That’s very interesting. All of the economics that we think generally will increase supplies — will entice somebody to do something — have not. We have just not seen the cow-calf producer be able to increase production at a rate really needed. So we have changed a lot, and we have gone from feeding animals on a very strict rotation to the longer we keep them on feed, the better off we’re going to be.”
Swift said the industry has also found ways to maintain beef supplies despite the smallest U.S. cattle herd in decades.
“We are all right,” he continues. “The price of beef is so high, and nobody is going to. We already know all that. We already know there’s a huge shortage of cattle. And what has the industry done over the last two years? They have worked methodically to keep enough beef out there so prices didn’t go high where the consumer couldn’t afford it. Consumers can still afford it right now. And the boxed beef, and of course, clearly with the dairy beef, without it, there’s no telling what would happen.”
Swift said practices such as beef-on-dairy have played an important role in supporting beef production while herd numbers remain at historically low levels. For now, analysts say tight cattle supplies continue to shape production and marketing decisions across the beef industry.
