THEE Hot Barn Report!
Heard ONLY on American radio stations across the nation and online at hotbarnreport.com!!
Welcome to America’s Hot Barn Report now heard coast to coast and border to border
It is official, we have just confirmed our 12th reporting barn for the big fall run. We now blanket the great Northern beef belt from Motely, Minnesota to Torrington, Wyoming.
The Hot Barn Report is a fast paced and entertaining daily program covering the latest news and trends in the cattle industry, hosted by Monte James, a veteran rodeo announcer, radio host and industry expert! The Hot Barn Report features interviews with industry leaders, market analysts, producers and ranchers and features True Price Discovery from salebarns in Great Northern Beef Belt and across the nation.
The drought that holds the death grip! Thanks for tuning in to this special Friday edition of the Hot Barn Report.
The most recent reports from the US drought monitor confirmed what most of us already knew after a hot and dry August. This drought situation is not letting up in our top cattle producing states and continues to hold a death grip on our nation’s feed growing capabilities.
Heat and dryness dominated large parts of the U.S. this past week, worsening drought in the Northwest, Plains, Midwest, and from eastern Arizona across to Louisiana and Mississippi. Nationwide drought coverage rose for the 8th straight week.
44% of the nation’s cowherd is running in drought-stricken areas, up from 40% last week. I anticipate that number will continue to rise as there does not appear to be widespread moisture relief in sight any time soon.
There is no doubt that analysts will continue to lean on this drought scenario as the bad guy in the storyline of an ever-shrinking domestic cowherd. But the wider lense will tell us that it is compounded by high input costs across the balance sheet and interest rates that are not supportive of any poor management decisions, let alone flirting with expansion.
Even if the lucky ones have feed on hand, it appears that there is still a reluctance to expand. There seems to be more comfort or maybe common sense found in paying down debt while this interest is high and not gambling at the cattle traders table. Too many are still healing from the scars left by the last market cycle that was anticipated to trade high for a few years and then freak occurrences like a fire in a concrete packing plant happened that sent more than cardboard boxes up in flames, peoples livelihoods went up in smoke too.
There is no doubt that the results of our shrinking cattle herd is coming out in the beef. Carcass weights are moderating, cattle on feed inventory is shrinking, and chain speeds are slowing. I assume there are cattle buyers scouring the banks of the Amazon looking for beef to import to fill the cases and the freezers. I mean, why not? They can still pass it off as Product of USA beef as long as their lobbyists keep working Washington over and barricading MCOOL out of the Farm Bill.
Multilateral, free trade agreements will always favor the lowest cost producer whose currency is under the US dollar value and in short American agriculture will continue to come out the loser. So maybe this is the time to bristle up and call your Senators and US Representatives and tell them to start focusing on sound ag policy that is tax payer neutral like MCOOL, the PRIME Act and the OFF Act and stop pouring billions into subsidizing a broken food system. Because after all, we can’t blame all our problems on the drought!
With the fall run coming up, marketing your cattle has to be on your mind. Contact a Hot Barn today to discuss your cattle marketing needs. Stockmens Livestock, Lemmon Livestock, North Platte Stockyards, St. Onge/Newell, Platte Livestock Market, Tri County Stockyards, Torrington Livestock, Creighton Livestock Market, Bassett Livestock Auction, Mobridge Livestock, Ogallala Livestock Auction Market, and Presho Livestock. Catch them all on CattleUSA.com.
Have a great weekend everyone from all of us at the Hot Barn Report!
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