John Nalivka

John Nalivka is the president of Sterling Marketing, Inc., which provides economic research and market advisory services to the livestock and meat industries. He became affiliated with Sterling in 1991 as executive vice president and he has owned the company since 1994. Nalivka serves clients across the red meat supply chain from producers to end-users.

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Two years of herd liquidation confirm that cattle numbers are extremely tight with record prices the result. Now is the time to plan and manage for your future.
The state of the U.S. beef industry in 2023 is strong. Drought-induced herd liquidation impacted the supply side, but an even greater impact occurred on the demand side.
Market prices for beef and cattle impact margins and short-term decisions at every level of the supply chain, but decisions concerning long-term financial health are driven by factors that may lead to structural change.
The well-defined costs of ranching and farming are often the focus of managing the business, but little watched regulatory costs can often become a burden to business operators.
With estimates of 82% capacity utilization of fed beef plants next year and 65% for cow slaughter plants, Nalivka says, “Rest assured - there will be decisions made.”
The foundation for consumer beef demand is not just quality, but consistent quality. Consumers want assurances the beef product they purchase today will be of the same quality as the beef they purchased last week.
Further processing of value-added products for direct sale to end-user customers in both retail and foodservice will increase over the next five years and help feed the growing global consumer demand.
As supplies of market-ready cattle have declined, so has beef packer capacity utilization.
Increasingly, U.S. and global agriculture are rapidly adopting a system driven by government regulations. Such regulatory activity should concern us all.
With a lower cattle inventory, per capita consumption will be the lowest since 2015.But while 2023 beef production will be down 6% from last year, it will still be 3 billion pounds greater than 2015.