Packing Problems Down the Road for Cattle Producers
The Cattle Industry Convention has wrapped up another year of sharpening its focus on 2017.
The market analysis firm CattleFax has released its outlook for the year ahead.
It expects overall commodity markets will stabilize and volatility is likely to be less. Margins for cow-calf producers will likely be reduced as prices soften amid a growing herd.
The cattle inventory report shows the beef herd is growing, but some analysts believe the expansion could create packing space problems down the road.
“As you look back at 2016, especially at the end of the year, there were sometimes it was a challenge,” said Kevin Good, an analyst with CattleFax. “The way we look at packing capacity today; they will need to harvest more cattle in 2017 because we have a forecast to see an additional 450,000 fed cattle.”