Maybe I am missing something here, but it appears historicly this is a normal down time in the cattle market.  You are coming off of holidays featuring poultry and pork which increases supply of boxed beef.  It is a good 2-3 months before that excess is ate away and slaughter in prep for the grilling months starts to happen.  I would not let the Jan-Mar period determine my future for backgrounding or feeding out cattle.  A lot can happen in the 6 months of backgrounding and the 4 to 5 months for feeding.  That is, it can get worse or as normally happens heading into May, it can get better.

Where are all the middle of the road people?  Not everyone is a hip hip hooray or doom and gloomer, are they?