Cattle Price Crystal Ball

As we sat down to secure an operating loan for our ranch last week, the conversation of course turned to cattle prices, what they’ll look like when we go to sell calves this fall, and how long consumers are going to continue to pay for what’s in front of them. You can bet our table isn’t the only one seeing these sorts of discussions.

Bernt Nelson, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, says several upcoming reports are going to give us a better look…

“We've got Cattle on Feed coming in. We've got the annual cattle inventory, and we also have another demand piece of the equation that comes in with cold storage.”

Regardless of what you’re buying, inflation fatigue is hitting us all. And, at the end of this month, a cattle inventory report….

“We're anticipating some decrease in the overall cattle inventory. Overall, if we look at the industry expectations, what some of the analysts are throwing out there, they're expecting even placements from last year, or even 101 percent of last year, and I find this a little bit surprising. Even if we look at a one to two percent decline, that still brings us down to that 86-and-a-half million mark, and that's still the fewest cattle we've had in 73 years.”

Again Bernt Nelson, American Farm Bureau.