Opinion
Whether futures markets are friend or foe often depends on our understanding of those markets and whether we can ignore the drama and use facts to make decisions.
“I want you to know the importance of the people you allow into your life,” Ray Perryman said. “The company you keep has absolutely everything to do with where you end up. Be careful who you allow into your life.”
Further discussion about cattle markets leads our columnist to conclude: producers are “prone to have high confidence in unfounded intuitions” and we often derive conclusions based on incomplete information.
A new tactic by animal rights groups: Infiltrate and co-opt advocacy groups, politicians, and even farmers. “Phony Farm” groups present an ag face but have shared causes, and funders, with animal rights extremists.
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.
Record packer margins were the tipping point to attract new capital to the business. There is now angst packer margins will be too low and these new companies won’t survive. But should we encourage government meddling?
Higher cattle prices have calmed much of the producer angst about the market not working. Now seems like a good time to analyze how we think about factors that drive prices.
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.
Successful ranchers learn to remove emotion from a situation. They subsequently they double down on the cost management side while also becoming more focused on value-added marketing strategies.
Solid prices gains are not new to cattle markets. Solid gains have been ongoing for several years and the fed market has roughly doubled over the past 35 months, a clear sign the market is not “broken.”
The PRIME Act would severely jeopardize U.S. meat’s exemplary food safety record and could cripple demand for beef products to the detriment of family cattle farmers, says NCBA Policy Division Chair Gene Copenhaver.
Markets may be higher, but there’s inherently more risk with each calf crop over time. That reality means ranchers must implement sound business strategies to ensure successful decision-making going forward.
As supplies of market-ready cattle have declined, so has beef packer capacity utilization.
A previous column drew producer responses about the OFF Act. Nevil Speer reviews some of the broader themes regarding your Beef Checkoff.
One more column on the OFF Act regarding the coalition of groups that have some “dubious partners” with “questionable motives,” Speer says.
“It is time for members of Congress to listen to those they truly represent,” says R-CALF president Brett Kinzey, “the people whose passion and time is centered on their fields and pastures, not inside the Beltway.”
Checkoff opponents contend the program is failing. So let’s dive into that contention with some added granularity and precision, says Speer.
Increasingly, U.S. and global agriculture are rapidly adopting a system driven by government regulations. Such regulatory activity should concern us all.
A misinformation campaign is underway attacking NCBA and endangering the programs that generations of farmers and ranchers worked hard to establish.
USDA’s proposed rule change to the Animal Disease Traceability (ADT) framework has given rise to several recurring arguments which offer confusion and distraction.
Do beef producers share in the profits gained through international trade? Let’s examine the data through the eyes of one of the industry’s largest players.
An Alabama reader responds to a recent columns by Nevil Speer regarding the OFF Act and country-of-origin labeling.
A recent opinion published on Drovers about the OFF Act (Opportunities for Fairness in Farming) has drawn a response from R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard.
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.
The OFF Act (Opportunities for Fairness in Farming) is promoted as a cure for “swampy secrets” about commodity checkoffs. But the accusations evaporate under a review revealing vast misrepresentations and demagoguery.
Showing livestock is supposed to be fun. But if we are really honest with ourselves, like all good things, it has its moments.
Market economics go beyond supply and demand and other key drivers are becoming increasingly meaningful in the current market environment including adjustments to production capacity.
OFF supporters, in their effort to undermine the Beef Checkoff, are touting a meaningless measure – and in turn boondoggle their own credibility.
How fair officials and the local sheriff, both unencumbered by intelligence, tarnished your image as a livestock producer and created a public relations disaster.
Government intervention, or the free market? An esteemed ag economist implored the beef industry long ago not to “block changes that are being prompted by basic rules of economics.”