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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Monday, April 14, 2025
Economists expect the nation’s cattle herd to either remain steady or continue shrinking into 2025, as producers show caution about restocking amid high production costs and drought potential.
USDA is spending $110 million to expand meat processing through more than 50 grants for projects in 30 states, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Thursday.
The number of cattle in feedlots declined to nearly 11.6 million head in May, down 1% from a year ago, according to USDA's latest Cattle on Feed report.
Ag real estate values in the area covered by the Kansas City Fed stayed strong through the end of 2023, according to the latest survey of bankers in the area covered by the Tenth Federal Reserve District.
The American beef cattle herd is as small as it has been since the 1950s, giving producers booming sales checks, but squeezing packers and consumers with higher prices.
The Senate Finance Committee used a hearing Thursday to highlight the fact that Brazilian packers are producing beef from cattle raised illegally on land once made up of lush Amazon jungle, and some of the beef from those animals may end up in the U.S. market, competing with U.S.-raised product.
Western producers in areas once dealing with devastating droughts scrambled to keep their livestock safe and fed this winter as a series of storms caused record-breaking amounts of precipitation. Now, the snowpack is beginning to melt, and there are concerns about potential flooding.
Moving livestock from field to field to lessen the impact of their grazing practices is a practice slowly taking hold, and some proponents say new federal funding coupled with better outreach could get more producers on board.
An Agriculture Department survey reported a record high cattle inventory for the beginning of May, but feedlot placements are declining and could be showing the early days of a contraction in the cattle cycle.
