If there was a lesson in 2022, it was that the beef market is very sensitive to declines in quality grade, as evidenced through price signals. It’s the first time in recent history where we’ve gone backwards — albeit ever so slightly — and customers are telling us they have unfulfilled demand. That’s reflected in the premiums paid, and that’s saying something after two years of extremely high premiums.
Part intuition, part learned experience and a growing database gave Randy Blach the tools to communicate to producers what the market demands. The bottom line is consistently front and center, his mission is to keep more cattlemen and women on the land, doing what they do best.
Prime cutout values and grid premiums have been rich in the third and fourth quarters of the past two years. Yet the spillover into the first quarter this year shows that the market is reacting to the recently smaller availability, retreating back to the 2019 supply pace.
Starting in March 2020, disarray set in motion a chain of events leading to the fed cattle backlog from plant closures slowing the supply chain throughout 2021. While the market likes to avoid the unkown, the last two years put the beef business in uncharted territory.
December has started off on a high note in the fed cattle sector and all of us on the cattle side of the supply chain should be made well aware of what’s ahead in 2022.
“So, if we make sure the humans can be prosperous and survive, that’s what sustainability is,” Mark Gardiner says. “That is the opportunity that USPB gave our family and thousands more all across the United States.” It’s why USPB earned the 2021 CAB Progressive Partner award.
To tell the U.S. Premium Beef story today, is to tell one that changed the beef industry for the better. The USPB mission includes increasing both the quality of beef and long-term profitability for cattle producers, and ranchers are as focused on that as ever.
After the last 18 months, what we would pay for a crystal ball that could help us predict the future! They don’t have any magic prediction powers, but leading minds shared their outlook on key beef production areas at this year’s Feeding Quality Forum.
The cattle business year in review is painted primarily with COVID-19 irregularities. A year ago few could have imagined the more widespread and lasting pandemic impacts that lay in wait.
The crystal ball is nonexistent. There is no magic fortune teller. No matter how good the market forecast nobody is right 100% of the time. That doesn’t mean cattlemen have to look at the future as nothing more than a blind guess.
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