An ag economist says cattle producers are facing mounting economic pressure.
Josh Maples is with Mississippi State University Extension. “Over half of the beef cow inventory in this country is in a drought area,” he says. “So producers have had to start feeding hay or feeding some sort of supplements in a lot of cases sooner than they intended to.”
He tells Brownfield this comes at a time when diesel prices are running nearly 72 percent higher than year-ago levels. “Anytime you’re going to feed cattle, whatever it is that you’re feeding them, you’re very likely using diesel for that,” he says. “And so we’ve got to stretch through here because of how dry conditions are where producers are probably going to be burning more diesel certainly than they would like.”
Maples says while some production costs continue to rise, other inputs, like feed costs have moderated. “Hopefully, cost of gain is going to stay manageable, certainly relative to what Fed cattle prices are,” he says.
Maples made his remarks in our latest episode of the Weekly Livestock Market Update on Brownfield.
