CattleFax Predicts A Stabilization In Cattle Market Prices During 2017 At Cattle Industry Convention

Feb 06, 2017

Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays continues coverage of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Cattle Industry Convention in Nashville this week, featuring one of the event’s highlights - the CattleFax Outlook seminar. Given the price outlook for cattle, Kevin Good of the CattleFax staff says producers can expect to see this year’s market begin to stabilize from the volatility observed this past year.

“If we take the push from the last fall lows at $0.98 to this high so far this year at $1.23 average - a 24 to 25 percent increase. That would match the biggest increase we’ve ever had in like-kind of years,” Good said. “If we have not seen the high for this year in the last few weeks, seasonally, you would expect it to come back and retreat that at some point as we go into March…late February and March.”

Good notes, though, that the risk in the market will be more prevalent in the second half of the year as beef deals with increased supplies of its own product, but will also face increased competition from both pork and poultry as those supplies are expected to rise as well.

“If that’s the case,” he said, “feeder cattle would average $1.30. Remember that the deferred discounts and the live cattle will keep a lid on feeder cattle prices and you can see a full range at $1.20 - $1.40 around that.”

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.