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Drought continues to impact cattle numbers

A livestock economist says drought in parts of cattle country has forced some cattle producers to sell off at least parts of their herds.

Scott Brown is an ag economist at the University of Missouri.  “We’ve seen liquidation continue to occur,” he says.  “We were up 46,000 head in August 2021, relative to August 2020.  So we really didn’t slow down in the data that we got for August in terms of beef cow slaughter.”

While the latest Cattle on Feed report was bearish for cattle markets in the near-term, Brown says the placements number, combined with beef cow slaughter numbers will likely have some longer-term implications to cattle markets.  “For me, I think we’ll still get out there in the latter part and talk about fewer numbers as drought has played such a role in some parts of the country.”