Looking Ahead to in Cattle Market

Yesterday at the Spokane Ag Expo and Pacific Northwest Farm Forum, Farm Direction's CEO Kevin VanTrump shared his Ag Economic Forecast. He is one of my favorite Ag analysts out there with a lot of global insight and a common sense approach to things.

He spoke of the cattle market and his thoughts on where it is headed.

VanTrump: "We think cattle prices we're bullish longterm for sure. We're looking to buy any major pullbacks. We think you could run into some nearby headwinds because the cash prices of cattle has gotten so high. Where really the consumer may run into a few problems here — because of the higher energy costs that have come out, Christmas bills that are coming due we think there may be a little setback but longer term we think it is going to take a long time maybe 2017 or 2016 before you turn the U.S. herd around."

The U.S. is ranks second as the global beef export to Brazil. Australia which is largely suffering from drought is the third ranked beef exporter. VanTrump addresses what is happening in other two major beef exporting countries as well.

VanTrump: "The Australian herd is getting drastically reduced. There is a few hiccups and problems possibly with the Brazilian herds which just puts more pressure on the U.S. so we think longer term we are moving to higher ground."

There have been rumors of possible BSE cases in Brazil which would have considerable impact on a global scale.

If you to learn more of VanTrump's insights go to farmdirection.com