2024 Retail Beef Demand Index Record High; Q1 Following

Retail demand for fresh beef last year was record high, despite high prices in the meat case, and it is on track to set another record in 2025. The Livestock Marketing Information Center, using Bureau of Labor Statistics and USDA Economic Research Service data, computed its Retail All Fresh Beef Demand Index for the first … Read More

Cattle Production Most Important To US Agriculture

Cattle production is the most important US agricultural industry, consistently accounting for the largest share of total cash receipts for agricultural commodities, said Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension beef cattle breeding specialist, in a letter called Cow-Calf Corner. In 2024, for instance, US cattle production represented about 22% of the $515 billion in total … Read More

Screwworm Effects Show Up In On-Feed Report

Having the border with Mexico closed is changing the landscape of US cattle feeding, if only for a little while. Cattle imports from Mexico were shut off last year to control the spread of New World Screwworm into the US herd where it has been absent since the 1960s.  The lack of feeder cattle to … Read More

Slaughter Cow Prices Keep Moving Higher

Cull cow prices just keep going higher, and the general trend likely will continue – at least for another few weeks. History shows that there is a definite seasonality to cull cow prices, and there is no reason to think this year will be any different.   COW PRICES CLIMBING   USDA weekly slaughter cow … Read More

Record-High Fed Cattle Prices Seen Continuing

The cattle markets started the summer moving into record-high price territory, reported Stephen Koontz, agricultural economist at Colorado State University, in a Livestock Marketing Information Center letter called In The Cattle Markets. The five-market weighted average cash fed cattle price pushed past $225 per cwt while prices in the Southern Plains were around $220, Koontz … Read More

April Kansas Feedlot Steer Sales Rise

Kansas feedlot marketings of slaughter-ready steers in April rose from May, a move that was unseasonal yet followed last year’s pattern, according to Kansas State University Extension service data published by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. The K-State Extension Service collects performance and activity data from a select group of feedlots, turns it … Read More

Canadian Feedlot Populations Continue Seasonal Decline

The number of cattle on feed in Canada’s feedlots on June 1 continued their seasonal decline, nearly intersecting last year’s declining line on a line graph but remaining well below the 2019-2023 average. The data came from Canfax, a division of the Canadian Cattle Association, through the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver.  Canfax collects … Read More