Cheap Feed, Expensive Beef – What Gives?
The cattle market has reached new highs repeatedly this month. We’ve known for years that the U.S. cattle herd has been steadily declining. It currently stands around 89 million head, which is the lowest it’s been since 1952. This hasn’t mattered much as the decades long decline in US beef consumption has wilted domestic demand. Furthermore, the impact of modern animal husbandry techniques have significantly increased the final weight of the cattle that hit the slaughterhouses, thus supplying the market with more total beef on fewer total animals killed. All of this bearish information begs the question, …