With Record-Low Beef Prices, This is Where the Cattle Industry Stands

Is the cattle market the worst in history?

By Michael MarksNovember 14, 2016 7:16 am

According to the Amarillo National Bank’s newsletter “The cattle market is the worst in history.” It’s a grim outlook, but according to cattle ranchers, it could be an accurate one.

Duane Lenz, whose company CattleFax provides analysis for the cattle industry, says that we currently have historically high beef and cattle prices. After 2012-2013 drought wiped out the state’s cattle herds, prices tightened up.

“Prices went to historical highs that incentivized our cow-calf producers, when the water came back and the feed came back, to add cattle numbers,” Lenz says. “As numbers have gone up prices have gone down.”

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– The cost per head of a cow or calf

– The effect prices are having on cattle ranchers

– If there’s sense of panic in the industry

– How ranchers are moving forward