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Upcoming Beef Reports will Paint Clearer Picture of Market Trends

TOPICS

Beef Cattle Livestock

Bernt Nelson

Economist

Chad Smith

Associate News Service Editor, NAFB

photo credit: Utah Farm Bureau, Used with Permission

Bernt Nelson

Economist

Chad Smith

Associate News Service Editor, NAFB

Farmers and consumers alike should stay tuned to upcoming cattle reports to see what’s on the horizon in terms of price. Chad Smith has more.

Smith: While U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers have seen high prices for their livestock, that does translate to increased cost for the consumer. Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says several upcoming reports will tell us if that trend will continue into 2025.
Nelson: What this all comes down to is we got three big reports on the horizon. We've got Cattle on Feed coming in. We've got the annual cattle inventory, and we also have another demand piece of the equation that comes in with cold storage.
Smith: He says consumers are feeling a lot of exhaustion from inflation, and, unfortunately, there may not be relief in store any time soon.
Nelson: If we take a look at where inflation rates are currently, you know they're much lower than they've been over the past couple of years. But even so, this is a rate of growth we're talking about, so we're still seeing some decent inflation, of increase in prices at the grocery store for some of our food products. If we look at beef and veal, for example, we're up about 5.4 percent.
Smith: He says all eyes will be on the Cattle Inventory Report at the end of January.
Nelson: We're anticipating some decrease in the overall cattle inventory. Overall, if we look at the industry expectations, what some of the analysts are throwing out there, they're expecting even placements from last year, or even 101 percent of last year, and I find this a little bit surprising. Even if we look at a one to two percent decline, that still brings us down to that 86-and-a-half million mark, and that's still the fewest cattle we've had in 73 years.
Smith: Chad Smith, Washington.

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