Latest News From Betsy Jibben

Producers watch to see if retail beef demand will continue its slow decline as consumers’ freezers are now packed with meat. There’s a discussion on market manipulation and if there’s a need for an investigation.

The hog herd is expanding. That’s according to the USDA Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report. Numbers are increasing in all categories compared to one year ago. How expansion continues amid COVID-19 is anyone’s guess.

Fears of the coronavirus continue to haunt the stock market despite the Federal Reserve’s efforts to calm it. Live cattle prices have dropped to numbers producers and traders haven’t seen in nearly a decade.

AgDay visited a feeder cattle auction at the Shipshewana Trading Place in Shipshewana, Indiana to find out what prices were like there to kick off 2020.

Earlier at the Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show, USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue addressed the scare of the coronavirus to the beef industry. It still remains a threat today.

NAFTA was a trade pact written in the early 1990s. Derrell Peel, an extension livestock specialist with Oklahoma State University, is one who aided and gave his insights when trade negotiators were writing the deal.

USDA’s Cattle Report shows the expansion stage is coming to an end. The total inventory as of January 1 is 94.4 million head, down slightly from 94.8 million head a year ago. It’s not a surprise to industry.

The fire sent cattle prices plummeting. Portions of the industry demanded an investigation and USDA said it was looking into it. Experts at the cattlemen's convention told AgDay that report is still pending.