Cattle market ponderings

The stock market has been a worrisome topic lately.

Not a lot of good news in that department. But ag commodities are sure showing some resiliency, particularly the two closest to our business, corn and cattle.

Last week yearling steers in the 800 to 900 lb. range sold on the Cattle Country Video sale in Gering, Nebraska at a total of about $1,200 / head. These were very nice cattle, Angus based genetics with good management and very little freight cost to the local feedyards that were snapping them up.

They penciled out at about breakeven to the December Live Cattle contract last Wednesday ($1.20 / lb. live wt.). Suffice it to say, buyers were gobbling them up with hopes of lower-than-projected cost of gain or a higher market by December. The deferred contracts on calf-fed cattle are also holding up nicely under all of the poor economic news of late.

As far as investments go, cattle may stand as good a chance as anything. Anyone planning to feed out calves or yearlings starting soon? They’re worth a lot right off the cows or coming off grass, that’s for sure.

You might be able to use a breakeven calculator like the one we created here to help make those decisions. Or send me an e-mail and we can chat about it: pdykstra@certifiedangusbeef.com.

-Paul

Paul Dykstra is a  beef cattle specialist for Certified Angus Beef LLC. He works closely with current and prospective licensed feedlots and ranchers in north-central and western states of the U.S to help them profitably meet the demands of a high-quality marketplace through breeding and managing Angus cattle to their utmost potential.

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