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Feed costs expected to impact beef production

Higher grain prices are likely to have an impact on beef production over the next several months, according to USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board Chair Seth Meyer. “We talk about tamping down beef production in both 2019 and 2020 because feed prices rising so significantly means those animals are going to be sitting on pasture a bit longer. It’s cheaper to keep them on pasture a little bit longer and have them eating grass and finish them on grain than it is to put them into the feedlot earlier and feed them that expensive grain to gain all of that weight.”

USDA still projects beef production this year will go up just under one percent with around 27-point-4 billion pounds going on the market.  USDA is projecting 2020 steer prices will be about two dollars a hundredweight better than they are now, but not as high as previously projected.