CattleFax: 2017 Second Most Profitable Year, Can Prices Hold?

Cattle prices continue to remain relatively supported.

Greg Henderson, editorial director of Drovers says the cash fed cattle market has rallied $4 to $5. Cash fed cattle prices jumped to $4 per hundredweight to $130 during Friday afternoon, with dressed sales in the north were $5 higher at $205 per hundredweight.

However, analysts at the Cattle Inventory Convention and NCBA Trade Show say there are several factors looming that could impact prices for 2018. The top concern is trade.

AgDay national reporter Betsy Jibben talked with John Hofferth, chief operating officer with Pinal Feeding Company in Maricopa, Arizona; Rod Alt, senior vice president of Farm Credit Services Southwest in Tempe, Arizona; Craig VanDyke, market analyst with Top Third Ag Marketing; Chris Hurt, ag economist with Purdue University; Derrell Peel, livestock marketing specialist with Oklahoma State University; Kevin Good, analyst with CattleFax and Don Close, vice president of food and agribusiness research and advisory with animal protein at with Rabo AgriFinance.

 

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Markets: Cash Cattle Rebound, Futures Notch Four-Week High
Markets: Cash Cattle Rebound, Futures Notch Four-Week High

After a mostly sluggish April, market-ready fed cattle saw a solid rally in the North and steady money in the South. Futures markets began to look past the psychologically bearish H5N1 virus news.

APHIS To Require Electronic Animal ID for Certain Cattle and Bison
APHIS To Require Electronic Animal ID for Certain Cattle and Bison

APHIS issued its final rule on animal ID that has been in place since 2013, switching from solely visual tags to tags that are both electronically and visually readable for certain classes of cattle moving interstate.

How Do Wind, Solar, Renewable Energy Effect Land Values?
How Do Wind, Solar, Renewable Energy Effect Land Values?

“If we step back and look at what that means for farmland, we're taking our energy production system from highly centralized production facilities and we have to distribute it,” says David Muth.

Ranchers Concerned Over Six Confirmed Wolf Kills in Colorado
Ranchers Concerned Over Six Confirmed Wolf Kills in Colorado

Six wolf depredations of cattle have been confirmed in Colorado from reintroduced wolves.

Profit Tracker: Packer Losses Mount; Pork Margins Solid
Profit Tracker: Packer Losses Mount; Pork Margins Solid

Cattle and hog feeders find dramatically lower feed costs compared to last year with higher live anumal sales prices. Beef packers continue to struggle with negative margins.

Applying the Soil Health Principles to Fit Your Operation
Applying the Soil Health Principles to Fit Your Operation

What’s your context? One of the 6 soil health principles we discuss in this week’s episode is knowing your context. What’s yours? What is your goal? What’s the reason you run cattle?