Tonsor Provides 2015 Cattle Outlook

It's been quite a ride in 2014 for most of the beef cattle segments from cow-calf sector, to stockers as well as for feedlots, but what about 2015? Can the cattle industry duplicate those results for another year. Kansas State University Livestock and Meat Marketing Assistant Professor Dr. Glynn Tonsor said 2015 will be a good year overall for the beef cattle industry, but some segments will do better than others this next year. Dr. Tonsor anticipates the fundamental story for the cow-calf sector is very similar for 2015 as it was for 2014

"They are the ones producing the calf crop that is in limited supply, that is still going to be the case in 2015," Tonsor said. " We have an improving feed cost situation. I think you are going to have continued support for record level feeder cattle prices and there for cow-calf returns barring some kind of extreme surprise on the cost side."

For the margin operators, like stockers Tonsor isn't as optimistic. He looks for historically high values of gain, thus improving the cost of gain situation which is attractive. He said this segment will also require a unprecedented amount of capital with record cattle prices. From a return on investment perspective, Tonsor looks for returns to be better than years in the past, but it may not be as good as 2014, so he encourages producers to watch their margins because of the amount of money tied up in cattle.