Prices

MO_cows · #1 03/11/12, 09:56 AM

Watched part of an auction on RFD-TV yesterday. At the end, there was an offering of commercial heifers, black and also some white face and brockle face. Selling them by the potload, 70 head per lot. They sold several hundred of them, all went around $1200 per head. For commercial yearling open heifers. They were uniform size and in real good condition, but wow!

myersfarm · #2 03/11/12, 10:04 AM

This is just way to high but everybody is bidding so they must think they are worth it

Wanda · #3 03/11/12, 10:21 AM

Kill cows in good flesh are seeing the other side of a dollar a pound in some places!

Look at $2 a pound weaned calves and the price of a future cow goes up.

collegeboundgal · #4 03/11/12, 05:01 PM

how will consumers be able to afford to eat beef with these prices!?! are we shooting ourselves in the foot, or will more people look at buying off the farm-grassfed-hopefully a little cheaper- half a beef? what about thoes that don't have a freezer big enough? makes me worriesome...

sammyd · #5 03/12/12, 06:08 AM

beef is the new caviar
Heard it more than once now.....

shagerman · #6 03/12/12, 09:28 AM

and they say that these prices are gonna hang around awhile.. for the next 3 years at least.. i don't see it happening,

sammyd · #7 03/12/12, 09:32 AM

Grass fed cheaper?
Every time I see it they want a premium because it is grass fed and thus a superior product...

goodhors · #8 03/12/12, 02:00 PM

According to my Farm Bureau News, the USA cattle herd is the smallest it has been in years. You obviously can't get cattle for meat if you haven't got big animals around, so those getting sold are worth more because there is no waiting to get them "productive" as meat or breeding animals.

Texas cut their cattle to the lowest numbers ever. A friend in Wyoming was buying TRUCKLOADS of registered, bred cows with calves, EXCELLENT bulls to go with them for meat prices in Texas last year. This was because she would pay more than sellers could get at the auctions, which were overflowing with sale cattle in the drought. Better to sell them for something, than to watch them die with no food. She shipped them home and has a LOT of new cattle, with MANY calves expected this spring.

Still leaves a big hole in production of cattle since those herds are gone now, many for the meat. Can't get the numbers back up if there are so many less cows to put calves on the ground.

Last weeks Livestock prices had cattle over 1.25 a pound, with feeders up around 1.54 a pound. Kind of pricy to buy, but good news if you are selling. I don't think folks will quit buying beef meat, but they may not have it for dinner every day like they do when beef is cheaper.

Depending on your grass quality, it may take longer to get that grass-fed animal to market. You have to sell it for more if it costs in time, and you may have folks willing to pay more, for an animal that didn't get stuffed with corn.

You are what you eat, and they want to be grass fed, not corn fed. Advertising and various "tests" can be quite persuasive to the consumer about what KIND of meat they want to serve to stay healthy. Heritage breeds of cattle, birds, are NOT all the same as the commercial breeds inside. Everyone wants to be healthy, so choosing grass-fed over feedlot cattle, is a choice they make on what they read and learn. Advertising skillfully DOES make a difference in how people think about their food sources, what they want in the meat coolers to purchase.

I think there is a happy medium between the two, but that never gets promoted!

bruce2288 · #9 03/13/12, 03:48 PM

Actual beef consumption is down in US last year. Exports are driving the prices, especially for the loin cuts.

**gone-a-milkin** · #10 03/13/12, 08:47 PM

I agree with bruce2288 that the foreign market is helping to drive our prices.
It is a unique situation with corn for fuel/feed costs/drought/ higher exports/ lower domestic sales.
We have an unprecedented set of circumstances that our beef producers have never experienced before.

Every farmer I talk to says the same thing. "Wow! I never thought I'd see the day..."
(Followed by their latest auction experience.)

It is pretty depressing to go to the feedstore right now, I will say that for sure!

Gabriel · #11 03/14/12, 09:37 AM

Got the Pharo Cattle newsletter yesterday and they quoted Bill Helming on a few points.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PCC

U.S. per capita beef consumption declined 32%, from 84.4 pounds per person (on average) in 1970 to 57.4 pounds per person (on average) in 2011.

U.S. per capita chicken consumption increased a total of 46 pounds per person in the same time period.

The most important factor responsible for this trend is cost and the price spread between beef and chicken at the consumer level.

The cure for high prices is always high prices. The reality and truth is that the beef industry has clearly not been cost and price competitive with its primary competition.

The U.S. beef industry consists of a very large number of very small and inefficient operations. The average number of beef cows per beef cow owner in the U.S. today is only 40 head!

The average age of beef cow owners is the highest it has ever been.

The U.S. beef industry was largely built historically on relatively cheap and low priced energy and corn. We obviously now have substantially higher energy and corn prices.

The American consumer is purchasing and consuming more and more ground beef, yet the U.S. and Canadian beef industries are not responding to what the consumer wants.

It is essential for beef cow-calf producers to substantially reduce and/or eliminate input costs. The best way to do this is to get frame scores back to the 3.0 to 5.0 range.

Most people associated with the beef industry applaud and welcome the major increases in beef cattle prices that have reached record high levels. However, there is a very dark side to these record high consumer beef prices.

spinandslide · #12 03/14/12, 10:22 AM

Most people associated with the beef industry applaud and welcome the major increases in beef cattle prices that have reached record high levels. However, there is a very dark side to these record high consumer beef prices.

This is true..I am a pessimist by nature..but the high prices have me..happy on the outside, but skeered on the inside..if that makes sense...add into it, Im skeerded of if we have residual from the epic drought of last year..

MO_cows · #13 03/14/12, 10:53 AM

The lowered supply of cattle puts the producers in the drivers seat instead of the packers for a change. These historic high prices are more likely to have producers cashing in on their culls rather than keeping heifers and hoping/speculating these prices will still be holding up in 3-4 years.

It's not just the inventory of beef cows that is down, there have been major dairy selloffs in recent history, too. Low cow inventory plus extreme drought in the number one beef producing state - who knows what will happen??

For the smaller producers who were cutting out the middlemen and marketing their own beef, there is less incentive now to do that. If they can just run them to the sale barn after weaning and cash in for a good profit, why keep them and have more cost into them by the time they are ready to harvest, do all the work of marketing, coordinating the multiple customers per animal, collecting their money from a bunch of individuals, the extra record keeping, etc?

It's gonna be interesting!

bruce2288 · #14 03/14/12, 11:14 AM

What I am hearing around my area is that large numbers of heifers are being held back for breeding. It would be hard for me to hold back a 700lb $1100-$1200 heifer to breed, but for some the hope of$1800 bred heifers in the fall is appealing. As happens with all farm commodities- high prices causes increased production which lowers prices. I just hope we can ride this high for a few more years. Condolelencse to those of you buying cattle.

spinandslide · #15 03/14/12, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bruce2288

Condolelencse to those of you buying cattle.

Amen...spoke with a friend who sold off his "Small" (as in bigger then mine, but still under 30) herd during our drought..he said he'd like to get back in..but he cant buy at these prices..how many guys are in his shoes?

I've met afew who are instead buying sheep...alittle cheaper and easier to handle..those producers could potentially never look back on cattle..the future is definantly uncertain...the high is a great one though...

Mo-what you bring up about small scale producers is true. We are hauling our two yearling calves to the sale this month..normally we'd feed them out..but this drought, and the possability of it continueing has me nervous..Im going to cash in on the high prices and wait for my cows to calve again..and haul the big steer I have to the processor...until we get a good amount of rain, the future will still be unsure..you cant make money on cattle feeding them hay.

bruce2288 · #16 03/16/12, 12:07 PM

Your friend might look at renting his pasture out for a season or two. Pasture rent here in Nebraska has really went up. I have heard as high as $300-$350 per cow/calf pair for the 5 month grazing season.

65284 · #17 03/16/12, 02:17 PM

I had a long time beef customer complain and refuse to buy meat she had ordered because her new husband told her $5.00 per pound was too high. This was for a 50 pound mixed cuts bundle of grass fed & finished, no shots, no hormone beef. Cut, vacuum packed and delivered to her door.

The next person on my customer list was delighted at the opportunity to buy the pack she refused.

sammyd · #18 03/16/12, 06:51 PM

that's about twice what the local butcher place is asking around here

65284 · #19 03/17/12, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyd

that's about twice what the local butcher place is asking around here

Sammy, with fats selling for around $130.00 per hundred a 1000 pound steer, using the .60% hanging weight and a .70% cut yield formula, should give him about 420# of salable meat. He would have about $3.10 per# in it, and that's before figuring anything for overhead or his labor.

If your local butcher is selling beef bundles of the same type of meat I am that contain burger, steaks, and roasts for $2.50 per pound he must be raising his cattle a lot cheaper than I can...........or rustling the steers he butchers.

sammyd · #20 03/17/12, 10:54 PM

2.69 sale flyer from last weekend