12/28/05 Cattle leader on this cattle cycle

Washington Ag Prices have been good for beef cattle producers this year though Pete Guglielmino, president of the Washington Cattlemen's Association points out that cattlemen face the challenges of higher fuel prices and overall increased costs of doing business too. If prices do stay up Guglielmino says there will be a tendency to expand the beef herd, but he sees some things at play that might limit expansion during this rebuilding phase of the cattle cycle. Guglielmino: "Number one might be age of producers. Lot of these guys are not going through the battle again of expanding their herd and then having to sell them at lower prices which ultimately happens in cattley cycles. Another thing affecting it are land values. There are lot of these cattle ranches the recreational value of them is at the point it is more lucrative for them to break it up into 20 acre parcels than it is to try and get back and survive another cattle cycle. So where I think you will see some expansion, I don't think you will see the expansion a lot of people are anticipating." The USDA will put out its annual cattle herd inventory report next month. I'm Bob Hoff.