East Central South Dakota | You might be correct on all points, but I really hope you are wrong on hamburger imports. Food security and safety is not a priority south of the United States. When an e-coli outbreak kills some kids from tainted imported beef it will negatively affect all beef, domestic and imported.
Part of the feeder premium, I believe, is to encourage production. I don't think it will have as much as an affect as increased price in the grains to encourage production, would have. I say this because the pool of producers that want to work as hard as it takes to be a livestock producer is getting smaller not larger. We got out of mamma cows in 2003 and our quality of life more than doubled. Livestock are a lot of work almost 24/7, and a lot of people don't want to work that hard, including me.
As for cattle being too high, at the end of the day beef still has to compete with the other animal proteins in the meat case, so maybe you are right. I believe beef is a premium product to the other animal proteins, but we still do not want to price ourselves out of the meat case and into curbing demand. I don't know if we have done that yet at these price levels, you probably have a better feel for that. Regardless, I am very happy for my very few neighbors that are still running cows, as they are finally getting paid for their hard work.
Edited by white shadow 4/8/2024 09:53
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Cattle
