I am sorry to hear of the liquidations due to drought. This is also usually the time of year when cattle come in from pasture and prices take a bit of a "harvest dip"

The US cattle herd is already the smallest since 1950 or so last I heard.  Our population has certainly increased. Even if per capita beef consumption stays about the same as in recent years, there is still a certain amount of annual beef consumption.

While packers may enjoy short term lower prices (even if the end user/consumer doesn't see much of lower prices), isn't there a point where just the reduction in size of the US cattle herd keeps prices from dropping more and maybe even come up a bit?

Isn't there some point in the next year or two there are just going to be fewer good quality US raised cattle for packers to bid on? And prices come up a bit? Or are imports being used to keep prices down?

Jim at Dawn

side note: I picked up the beef (for family use) from a completely grass finished steer from the processor today. This is the one that I asked if he was finished or not a few weeks ago. Was intending to finish him on grazed corn but with northern pastures as they were this cool summer he just finished on clover at about 1175 lb. If folks could see and taste some of this beef, per capita consumption would skyrocket!

Also got two packages of brisket from this steer. After tasting Black Dirt's brisket at the NAT get together at Decatur I decided to try to do some myself. Bill sets a high target but we'll see...

My kids are starting to know what they are getting for their birthdays, etc. a couple of ribeyes, T-bones, roasts and 20 lb of good hamburger...don't need to worry about size. Everyone takes a "large"!