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Cattle producer has bleak market price outlook

Recent run-ups in feed input costs and drops in cattle prices has cattle producers concerned about the future.

A southwest Missouri farmer says a lot of cattle producers are in limbo when it comes to marketing their beef.

“Are we going to sell our calves now or do we try to hold on and background them ourselves or even retain ownership in feeding those cattle in hopes of the cattle market getting better towards the end of the year,” Glen Cope said. “But there’s a lot of apprehension towards that because what are the feed costs going to be.”

Cope tells Brownfield while he understands lower feeder cattle prices because of high corn costs, lower fat cattle prices don’t make sense.

“Those cattle already have all the inputs put into them, why aren’t the packers bidding up for those cattle,” he said. “That’s a lot of [the] questions a lot of us beef producers are asking ourselves; why aren’t we seeing a fat cattle rally.”

Cope said he fears the market will get worse before it gets better for cattle producers, expecting $8 corn.

Glen Cope Interview

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