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Rains bring optimism for some cattle producers

Recent rains have been a welcome sight for many cattle producers.

Tony Hancock is with the Missouri Department of Agriculture. “We’re hoping we get a little runoff to put some water in the pond,” he says.  “You can buy feed, you can truck feed, but when you get hauling water, that makes things real serious in a big hurry.”

He tells Brownfield it could provide incentives for some producers around the state. “It very possibly could maybe start to tempt some people to maybe start keeping a few cows or heifers,” he says.  “Because we have the feed currently, it may be in hay form, but we have quite a bit of feed right now.”

Hancock says he doesn’t expect any widespread expansion, but some recent sales have been interesting. “There were some heifers that went back home that brought just a few hundred dollars over the $3,000 mark,” he says. “If guys are paying that, I think they’re probably doing a little more than just maintaining.”

The latest Cattle on Feed report from the USDA had the percentage of heifers on feed at 40 percent, which economists say confirms there still hasn’t been widespread expansion to the cattle herd.