With the start of a new year, the cattle markets have made a big transition. From high cattle prices in late 2014 to a severe drop in the second half of 2015. Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel said the markets showed recovery at the end of the year and this set the stage going into 2016.
“We’ve made most of that adjustment, so I don't see that same kind of adjustment happening,” Peel said. “At this point I think we move forward now, you know with the supply and demand conditions that we see out there.”
Beef herd expansion was aggressive in 2015. The annual U.S. cattle inventory numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will be released on Friday, January 29. Those numbers will confirm just how aggressive herd expansion was this past year. Peel anticipates another strong year of herd expansion in 2016 because of volatility in the cattle market in late 2015. He said that may have tempered expectations, so expansion may be slower than expected. He’s looking for more herd expansion this year in western Oklahoma and west Texas.
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