Demand for beef in the United States and worldwide was strong last year. Cattle producers made money and ended the year hoping to continue the same winning ways into 2018. The head of the Livestock Marketing Information Center talks about 2017 performance in the cattle industry.
Radio Oklahoma Ag Network farm director Ron Hays looked back on 2017 with Jim Robb, of the Livestock Marketing Information Center, who says this past year turned out to perform much better than most in the agriculture industry would have anticipated.
?It turned out to be a year where, especially in the fourth quarter, the market was stronger than anticipated on the cattle side, supported by a stronger than anticipated beef market,? Robb said. ?The wholesale beef market was the driver behind that. Everything went right in 2017 compared to 2016.?
Robb reports demand for beef significantly outpaced predictions, both domestically and internationally, particularly in Asian markets like South Korea. He says the beef industry made deep inroads this past year, taking away some of its market share from Australia.
The fact that export levels stayed consistently stable throughout year compared to other protein products that struggled during the summer months certainly impressed Robb. In spite of new tariffs on beef exports to Japan, the market showed remarkable resilience in 2017 and enjoyed a strong economy for the first year in many, as mirrored in the U.S. where Robb says domestic grocers played the beef market to their mutual advantage, featuring beef products up until the week before Thanksgiving.
?Looks like a record year,? Robb said. ?We anticipated a good year, but the price we?ve been able to sell the product for has certainly added more than we thought to the total value of beef exports. Plus, demand coming from the retail sector was very competitive and was a key component to the demand for wholesale beef to be strong – which then fed through to packers? demand for cattle, fed cattle being strong – and came right back to calf and yearling prices.?
