07/04/08 Beef industry analysis

Mostly, I shudder when I think about listening to beef cattle economists and market expert's future predictions. They seem to have a real problem being optimistic about any aspect of the cattle industry. Well, the June issue of Beef magazine had four articles with predictions from four industry experts so I took a chance and read what they had to say. I was pleasantly surprised  bottom line optimism out weighted pessimism. The pessimism was not so much doom and gloom as it was the reality of some hard times because of the general economy, rising input costs, and seeing changes in the industry. Well, the industry has been changing ever since the first trail drives to northern markets and production agriculture of all kinds has never been a sustained cakewalk. While some people might not see world population increase as optimistic, it can be to producers who will feed that population. Some of these experts pointed out parts of this growing group will have more disposable income and will normally buy higher value protein such as beef. I think as long as cattle producers are allowed to operate without burdensome regulations and can hold together enough land to produce on we just might have decent future markets for our high quality beef. I'm Jeff Keane.