Death comes to us all. Life's but a walking shadow | I might have a chance to buy a few head of "inexpensive?" yearling calves to feed off some of this cheap corn . Maybe I should say "less expensive". They're less expensive because the quality isn't that great. Any profit will depend on the price of beef next spring. In the past being on the distant "fringe" of the cattle producing areas our cattle usually sold at a 20, 30 sometimes 40% discount to the West up until last year. Last year we almost reached national price levels here. But when I checked the national cattle report I see that Virginia & South Carolina feeder cattle are now selling at a discount to the West again. That's a bad sign. In the mean time fed cattle have come down from their highs last year with futures even lower out into the future.
Now I can't imagine that herd rebuilding which just started will increase the number of calves fast enough to increase supply in just a year so it must be other factors (exports, the dollar, etc.) so I'm wondering just what might happen to price. Will it stay about the same or go lower?
By the way maybe someone can explain to me how the cash price for feeder cattle ( in the $2.60-2.80 range by the reports) be so much higher than the futures price ($2.20's). How can you buy calves and hedge them? |
Beef:Pork spread---Beef guys might want to keep an eye on this
