Opinion
One consequence of the back-to-back-to-back black swans is a surge in the popularity – or at least sampling – of fake meats. Rising prices for real beef has aided demand for alternatives at retail and foodservice.
Gregory Bloom, CEO and owner of U.S. Protein, shares his perspectives on the cattle market based on experience as a cattle buyer, meat seller and working with chefs and restaurants.
With so much conversation around sustainable nutrition and some voices calling for everyone to ditch meat to save the planet, we all need to get more comfortable communicating about nutrition.
Specific challenges vary from year to year, but at its core, the cattle business is the business of dealing with challenges. The planning it takes to get through these challenges is the real work of the business.
Black swan events are always possible, but with a little luck, cattle markets will settle back into more typical dynamics and we can get a break from the action-adventure roller coaster of the past two years.
Historically, the technology used to monitor pastures was the keen eye of the stockman. New technologies – such as drones - can sample large pastures quickly under a variety of conditions without damaging forage.
Whatever your thoughts on the politics of border security and immigration, it is undeniable that a crisis exists for those men, women and families who must live and work amid the chaos.
Save money and create efficiencies while improving the health of your herd and reducing environmental impact.
The impact of cattle market discrepancies are being felt by consumers and gaining the attention of lawmakers outside traditional farm-states. New reporting suggests USDA may be considering regulatory action.
The topic of beef packer capacity remains a critical industry concern. It plays an important role across the entire red meat supply chain from the ranch to the packer/processor through distribution.
The lack of electricity and fuel during last winter’s historic storm has the Texas state legislature considering an exemption for dyed diesel fuel and increased truck weights on public roads during an emergency.
Feed costs are on the rise for many cattle producers, a situation they haven’t faced for several years.
Public lands ranchers are conservation experts. Cattle and sheep producers have cultivated healthy ecosystems on private lands and leverage that environmental success onto the federal grazing allotments they manage.
Against the backdrop of Earth Day and the climate summit, you will hear claims cattle and sustainability can’t mix. As one whose ranch is older than USDA, I say farmers and ranchers are the original conservationists.
Nevada is exploring the idea of “water banking,” which, in short, is the creation of a market to sell and/or buy water rights. We should all be skeptical of hedge funds trading water rights independent of the land.
U.S. Cattlemen’s Association president Dr. Brooke Miller offers his organization’s view of the Cattle Market Transparency Act of 2021, introduced in the Senate on March 3, 2021.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has effectively hung a “welcome” sign out encouraging radical activist groups to make mischief in his state and torment ranchers. The first salvo is called the PAUSE Act.
Why do you do what you do? If you are anything like me, I bet you’ve stopped to take a deep look in the past year at how you spend your days. Pandemic living has definitely made me ask more questions.
Attempting to use the legislative process to make things more difficult for animal agriculture is far from a new tactic for animal rights activist organizations, but things seem to be heating up in this area.
Most industry analysts expect cow-calf operations will see positive margins in 2021 and over the next two or three years. That optimistic view is based on expectations for smaller cattle supplies going forward.
Proposed legislation that is perceived to make markets work better and solve a problem often has the opposite effect, argues Sterling Marketing president John Nalivka.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis angered ranchers when he declared March 20 as MeatOut Day in his state, further promoting misinformation about cows and climate change.
Cattle feeders showed they have the resolve to fight for higher bids during last week’s cash cattle trade. The market rallied $3 as the futures market continues to suggest better days ahead.
Analyzing profit and loss relationships across the production end of both the beef and pork supply chains is key to decisions regardless of where you sit in that supply chain.
Meat sales - both dollar values and volume - were significantly higher in 2020. Those gains, however, came at the expense of a crippled restaurant and food service industry that may take years to recover.
Lessons learned from the pandemic marketing year suggest a decision structure built on gathering the most relevant data while minimizing the noise of the uncontrollable.
While packing plant closure and slow-downs disrupted the beef industry in 2020, demand will become more critical heading into 2021 including consumption at-home, away-from-home, and for export.
Few producers in the U.S. even want to consider the fact that alternative proteins (aka “fake meat”) are a threat to their business in the foreseeable future. We want to try to change your mind on that.
As much as 2020 has shown us being flexible is just as valuable as having plans, I still believe there is merit to taking a moment to reflect on some of the trends we’ve seen and how they may impact us moving forward.
With so many problems to overcome throughout the past year, most are eager to put 2020 behind us. Still, there were tremendous achievements made and even the storm clouds had silver linings that we should not overlook.