Latest From Opinion

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Other Important Factors at Play in Cattle, Hog Markets

The economic environment of both the beef and pork industries has changed. Capacity utilization for both beef and pork has a significant impact on margins and the market impact goes beyond supply and demand.

Mark Eisele - NCBA President
New Law Protects American Farmland and Food Security

Adding the Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is an important step forward for strengthening our security.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Beef Quality Driving the Business

Even as consumers are sensitive to higher prices, beef demand remains strong. Increases in beef's overall quality and uniformity over the years has spurred that demand growth and marbling has been the difference maker.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Profiting From the Grid

Cattle are NOT fungible – value differences across the slaughter mix is enormous. Precision pricing – via a grid – makes a huge difference and attempts to mandate arbitrary levels of live cash trade negates that reality.

Global Farmer Network
Turning the Challenge of a Cattle Cycle Into an Opportunity

We’re in a predictable period of a well-established supply and demand cycle. Yet there is a different potential crisis looming for the beef cattle industry.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Record Cattle Prices, But the Environmental Challenge is Mounting

Ranchers should be concerned about policies that infringe on public land grazing and limit use of a valuable resource in the name of climate change.

Steve Cornett
Cornett: We Were Wrong on ‘Cheap Food’ Policy

Drovers' cowboy columnist believes "there was value beyond economics to the agriculture of my youth, with chicken houses to be scooped and cows to be milked and gardens to be tended."

Nevil Speer
Speer: Bettin’ On The Grid

The reliability of marbling is making a difference – and cattle feeders are taking advantage. With real dollars at stake, more cattle are committed to negotiated sales and betting on the grid is paying off.

Greg Henderson
Kicking the EID Can Down the Road

America's cattlemen continue to resist any traceability policy that is not strictly voluntary. But how long will stakeholders up the chain continue to give beef a pass?

Nevil Speer
Speer: Beef Forging Ahead With Consumers

Inflation has hit food prices especially hard, but higher prices haven't driven consumers away from beef. Why is that? The Checkoff-funded National Beef Quality Audit provides some clues.

Nevil Speer
Speer: LRP Needs Measured Approach

This is the third in a series on Livestock Risk Protection. The previous two addressed misperceptions of market impact from LRP. The remaining topic – subsidy harvesting – is the most interesting and controversial.

Nevil Speer
Speer: The LRP Horse Is Definitely NOT Dead

Do cattle producers have the narrative correct regarding the impact of LRP? Some assumptions may be completely disconnected. Let’s revisit this still-kicking horse.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Cattle Numbers Lowest in 73 years - the Glaring Headlines

The beef market has become increasingly dependent on consumer demand – consumers who are both willing and able to continue purchasing beef at higher prices.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Let's Beat the LRP Horse Again

Yes, another column about the LRP… because it’s an important risk management tool, it’s misunderstood, and…this horse ain’t dead yet.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Data, Facts, And Logic

Inspiration for Speer’s latest column came from a rancher who stopped in the middle of feeding cattle to share his thoughts from inside his tractor.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Conquering Resistance

Often the most important key to being successful is ignoring the negativity of others who want you to become stuck in the status quo.

Nevil Speer
Speer: You Versus You

When we let ourselves focus on outside influences we are succumbing to defeatism. The better approach is to focus on those things you can control: you versus you.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Yelling Imports in a Crowded Salebarn

Imports and exports [both product and cattle] create value and provide opportunity for all trading partners, thereby underpinning the reason international trade exists. A review of data confirming the value of trade.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Don’t Blame Trade – Blame Protectionism

Critics of U.S. beef's trade activity claim imports distort domestic cattle prices. But actual data tells a much different story.

Nevil Speer
Speer: LRP Sense and Nonsense

There remains a lot of noise around the issue of LRPs in the cattle markets. That was best described by one of my readers last week: “[most of the critics] don’t even understand the facts, let alone the myths.”

Jennifer Shike
Encourage the Next Generation to Chase Big Dreams

Methodical grind. There’s no question talent makes a difference, but what makes the biggest difference is commitment -- the daily decision to choose to work hard and show up. 

Nevil Speer
Speer: Some More Most Important Things

Following up on a recent column, Nevil Speer reports on the advice from a seasoned grain analyst: Three things that you should do for success in 2024, plus, four things NOT to do. Remember, it's "you versus you."

Nevil Speer
Speer: The Most Important Thing

The most important thing largely revolves around our perspective, and subsequent management, of risk (or lack thereof). Eleven essential tips for risk management.

Greg Henderson
Gov. Polis Releases Wolves in Covert Ceremony

The gray wolves relocated from Oregon to Colorado have a lengthy rap sheet. Maybe the secret reintroduction ceremony included a secret clemency grant from the Governor.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Prepare for a Changing Beef Industry

Activists will intensify their calls to end grazing and beef production over the next several years as climate change and carbon emissions become the priority as opposed to just protecting the environment.

Nevil Speer
Speer: LRP Options Action

LRPs and options are essential risk management tools, but coffee shop talk suggests LRPs are driving the cash market lower. Let's examine the data to keep the discussion measured and objective.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Stalking the LRP Smoke Monster

Some blame the recent rout in the futures markets on LRP (Livestock Revenue Protection), a claim that is wholly unsubstantiated. A look at the data confirms LRP blame really is a smoke monster. 

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Demand Increasingly Critical to Beef Outlook

While tighter cattle numbers and further declines in beef production will support higher prices, demand will increasingly become the critical market driver in 2024.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Bashing The Speculator

There seems a belief that speculators – either too many or not quite enough – are solely responsible for driving the market one direction or another. But bashing speculators is what people do who don’t like the price.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Don’t Try This At Home

Cattle futures markets have come under criticism lately for their volatility. A common theme is there are "too many shorts" or "too many longs." That ignores the fundamental fact that futures markets must come in pairs.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Discernment Is Paramount

A snowballing effect from several factors has led to the present market flush in cattle futures and provides a stark contrast between emotion and factfulness.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Genetic Merit Value Discovery Could Prove Monumental

Capturing true value discovery of feeder cattle through genetic merit could become a watershed moment for the U.S. beef industry.

Patty Wood
Beef Checkoff-funded Educator Program Helps Cultivate New Generation of Informed Consumers

Connecting agriculture with science helps STEM educators foster a new generation of consumers who are better informed about beef and beef production.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Producers Have the Whip Hand

USDA’s regular October reports provided insight about future beef production. Any thoughts of herd restocking that may have existed earlier have been put on hold for now.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Permabears Keep Calling Bad Plays

Beef’s critics see an industry that is corrupt and/or broken with NCBA and packers padding their pockets. The facts tell a different story. Beef is winning the marketplace…and it’s not even close.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Squaring the Oct. 1 Feedlot Inventory with Total Cattle Numbers

USDA's recent October 1, 2023, Cattle on Feed report offered a few surprising numbers. How does that report square up with previously released USDA data?

Nevil Speer
Speer: Why Those Day-old Calves are So Valuable

Profitability challenges in the dairy sector make the value of beef-on-dairy (BXD) calves more important and underscores the reality that dairy cows are now on double duty.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Day-Old Calves Cost How Much…?

Prices for day-old beef-X-dairy (BXD) calves are often surprisingly high. But what used to be a highly discounted after-thought (straight dairy calves) is rapidly transforming into a meaningful source of production.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Breaking Down the Carcass to Measure Demand

Prices across the entire beef complex have reached record levels. Demand remains the key variable, and now may be the time to measure demand through the value of the various cuts of the carcass.

Greg Henderson
No, Beef Demand is Not Shrinking

Checkoff deniers would have you believe per capita consumption data indicate demand is in decline. That claim was debunked 25 years ago.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Genomic Testing an Investment In Herd Profitability

When considering the capital commitment required to maintain a cow over her lifetime, genetic testing is really a financial risk management tool and an investment in total herd profitability. 

Nevil Speer
Speer: Feedlot Talking Point Goes To Court

The demise of cattle feedlots is a talking point often used to stir emotion among those in the industry. How might such claims be argued in court where alternative facts are usually exposed under cross examination?

Nevil Speer
Speer: Beating The Feedlot Witches Brew

More days on feed means more opportunity for something going wrong – ultimately ending in increased death loss. Preventive illness management before arrival is more important than ever.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Prices Higher for Longer

There’s mounting evidence of a protracted cattle cycle because whatever happens from here, Speer says, next year’s starting cow herd number will be down sharply.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Record Prices Require Risk Management

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.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Producer Investment Deserves Straight Talk, Not Misleading Improversation

Despite the misrepresentation from some groups, your beef checkoff has paid huge dividends. And given that producers fund the program, there’s an obligation to portray the program factually. Here are some facts.

Steve Springer
Beef Checkoff’s Producer Communications Efforts Necessary to Shape Current, Future Programs

CBB member and co-chair of the Stakeholder Engagement Committee, Wisconsin cattleman Steve Spinger discusses why the Beef Checkoff invests a small percentage of its funding for Producer Communications.

Nevil Speer
Speer: Cutting Edge of Change

Agriculture is changing rapidly; that inherently creates tension.  However, producers who operate believing “success is within my control” are the ones most likely to succeed amidst the turbulence.

Pat McDowell
Producers Must Put Themselves in Consumers’ Shoes

Our industry is constantly evolving, but today’s consumer is changing even faster. As producers, we must put ourselves in their shoes because we’re ALL consumers at the end of the day.

John Nalivka
Nalivka: Downsizing the U.S. Beef Industry?

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.