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Cattle market risk and reward

A crop and livestock producer from northwest Iowa sees risk and opportunity in the cattle market.

Jolene Riessen grows corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and runs a custom feedlot near Ida Grove.  She tells Brownfield a local sale barn recently sold 700-pound feeders for nearly $400/cwt and that’s not sustainable for most producers.

“It would take a very sharp pencil to be able to figure a break even on those, that you’re making money. That’s some pretty tight margins there. But if you think that the corn price is going to go lower, than I’d imagine you’re going to be okay.”

Her sons have a cow/calf operation, and she says that is a different story.

“They’ve never ever gotten that much money out of a cow before. And I know the cow herd is small, and it’s still not building.”

She says the high costs of replacements makes expansion difficult for many operations.

“I can’t get a good answer from anybody, and I feel I have some pretty good sources to go to. And yeah, that bottom is not in, they’re not seeing any kind of a pullback on heifers. And when you can get that kind of price on heifers, it’s pretty tough to put them back in the yard.”

Riessen says on the crop side, she’s preparing for higher input costs in 2026.