The hamburger you may eat today and the steak or roast, all have a common beginning. The U.S. cattle herd numbering over 100 million.
The last phase is the feedlots where corn, soybeans and other grains and supplements are fed to millions of cattle to make the meat more tender and more abundant.
Last Month?s Cattle on Feed Report showed aggressive marketings by feeders as they battle to be profitable.
A Livestock Economist Dr. Derrell Peel looks at what selling lighter weight fed cattle is doing for the market.
?When you multiply the increase in slaughter, we?re having and we expected to have,? he said, ?you offset part of that with this decreased carcass weight. So, it moderates the increase in beef production that?s going on. That?s the immediate effect.?
Generally, though, lower carcass weights in a time of growing supply, to Peel, is indicative of a healthy feedlot situation right now. He insists that is the best strategy to handle the larger number of cattle in production currently.
?These feedlots have continued to market cattle very aggressively, very timely,? Peel pointed out. ?They?re current, and you know, that?s good!?
