News

A good time to be a cattle producer

Pictured: Iowa farmer James Holz at the 2025 Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference (Photo by Brent Barnett/Brownfield)

A central Iowa cattle farmer says 2024 ended on a high note and he’s optimistic about the year ahead.

“Cattle prices are really good going into 2025,” said James Holz. “We’re pretty excited about that.”

Holz says weather challenges have been minimal to start the year.

“Really good weather here. We graze a lot of our cover crops on our farm and so that’s worked really good. We have not that much snow cover and we got a lot of rain in November and so those cover crop seeds are coming up well.”

He tells Brownfield lower feed costs have also provided some relief.

“Obviously grain and corn are near bottom. Forages are really cheap. That’s a great opportunity for people because you can plant these cover crops and you can get a lot of cost shares for them to get them put in.”

Holtz farms near Grand Junction in Greene County and also owns a specialty seed business called Iowa Cover Crop.