Oklahoma Cattle prices are sky high. Good or Bad??

[farmlifeusa]

Oklahoma Cattle prices are sky high. Good or Bad?? Want opions on this. I buy calves around $300 and sell around $600. I'm worried about spending $400 plus now for calves & not getting my money out down the road. Will these prices last??

[Callieslamb]

Nope, good prices never last. But it's good for me. I hope to sell my milk cow this week and replace her with better cow! She will have to go to the meat market since she has a type of infection that makes it so I can't in good faith sell her to be a milker. Alas.....

[farmlifeusa]

When you say won't last do mean month by month or year by year?

[ksfarmer]

If you figure it out, let us all know. Yep, calves are high but so are feeders and fats. And, the calf you paid 300/sold 600 is probably now 400 and $700. Grain is high, no one knows how long it will last. Everything is high, if prices start to drop, the last man out is hurt. I really think IMO, prices will stay high on all ag products as long as the world economy is in a turmoil, and don't forget to figure in all the weird weather worldwide. As far as your question: an old rancher once told me , "stay in the saddle son, you only lose if you jump in and out, you'll always be jumping at the wrong time".

[sammyd]

cattle herd is at the lowest it's been since the 50's and headed lower. You can get more out of heifers by feedlotting them than cow calfing according to the pres of whatever beef group was on ag day this morning.
I would guess that prices will stay up for a while....

[ErinP]

Originally Posted by ksfarmer

If you figure it out, let us all know.

Just what I was going to say. My crystal ball is on the fritz.
Seriously, farmlife... "When will the market rise/drop?" is the most basic question that no one has EVER had the answer to. If they did, no one would ever go broke in this business.

Traditionally, cattle markets are up when horse prices are down.
Well the horse market is about as bad as it can get and looks to remain that way for some time yet to come... So there ya go.
Wait for the horse market to start to come up and sell your cattle.

[farmlifeusa]

"When will the market rise/drop?" is the most basic question that no one has EVER had the answer to. If they did, no one would ever go broke in this business.


Which is why I asked for opinion not facts!!

[farmlifeusa]

10 farmers will look at 1 corn field & there will be 10 different outlooks.....Right?????

[rancher1913]

i really expected a drop after the election and that never came. seems to good to be true so I figure its a bubble, hope i'm wrong but I shure wouldn't want to get cought holding a bunch of calfs and end up upside down. if you can afford the risk go for it.

[Gabriel]

I'm afraid that all commodity prices are up right now because of the big banks spending all the "save the economy" funds they've been given on commodities rather than loaning it out. I believe all prices will be up for quite some time to come. You wanted my opinion... it may be worth what you paid for it.

[MO_cows]

The high prices are encouraging people to cull their cows hard which also holds down future production. If people start keeping more heifers and building their herds up again, well that just takes more protein out of the pipeline in the short term. The weak dollar means imports aren't so cheap anymore. So I think the good prices are gonna last awhile.

[myersfarm]

ok here is my 2 cents....they will say up for 2 more years...thats how long it takes for the small farmer to expand jumping in to this market by buying heifers....small farmer less then 30 head....the when they sell there first calfs...over load ....the market will come down....when they gave more for there heifers then they can get out of them as bred cows...the feed market HAS TO COME DOWN....when it does the cattle market will go back up

[SuperDog]

And don't forget that since Sexed semen, the amount of Dairy steers has dropped. The dairy beef supplies a fair part of the beef in this country. Now the dairy heifer calves are going for the same price as the bull calves. The surplus of Dairy bull calves has come to an end. Then throw in China consuming more meat per capita than ever. I say high beef prices are here for awhile. But thats just my opinion.

[springvalley]

I also think that the prices will stay up for awhile, and for sure feeders will go up even more by spring. You want to make some money buy small calves now and have them ready to go on grass by spring and you could make a killing. As long as corn is high, I think you will see high cattle prices. Just my opinion, > Thanks Marc

[francismilker]

I'm pretty sure prices are higher everywhere right now. (Though OK may be seeing slightly higher than the national average at the minute.) I think it will last on a region by region basis that revolves around the price of corn and the drought conditions.

As it stands today, Feb 6th 2011, I will not make enough hay off my fields this summer to feed my cows based upon precipitation for the fall and winter so far. The last time we seen this type of weather was in 2003 and again in 2006 and we droughted ourselves into a busted price at the salebarn.

[Creamers]

"stay in the saddle son, you only lose if you jump in and out, you'll always be jumping at the wrong time".

Love that

[bruce2288]

I think we will have a couple of years. Weigh up cow prices are high encouraging heavy culling. Keeping replacement heifers is very difficult at these high prices ( a bird in hand is worth two in the bush). Currency exchange rates diverting some imports to other countries, also makeing our exports more attractive. If you have cattle enjoy it and grin for now loan prices have always followed high prices eventually.