Eyes are on beef cattle prices for the rest of this year and into the next. Chief Economist Justin Benevidez shares what he gathers from data when considering individual and national herd retention. “As far as whether or not the herd is going to grow into next year, I’m of the mind that it will, and I’ll caveat that with saying I’ve been of the mind that it’ll grow for the last two years,” said Benevidez.
Benevidez also adds, “No longer at the record-breaking levels that we were earlier in the year, but these are still very high prices, and you can see that the returns to cow-calf producers are the highest they’ve ever been. We’re actually only looking at net returns of about $100 a head on average, so even though this is a really strong moment for cattle producers, they’ve been waiting for a long time for this kind of return.”
Audio Reporting by Elizabeth Sanders for Southeast AgNet.