MARKETING...
Beef Cow Slaughter Continues
at Liquidation Pace
With only a few weeks of data to finish the year, beef cow slaughter, though significantly smaller than last year, is on pace to ensure additional herd liquidation for the 2012 year. For the year to date, beef cow slaughter is down 12.6% from last year. Smaller year-over-year reductions in recent weeks have reduced the magnitude of the decrease from last year.
In fact, one interpretation of smaller year-over-year decreases the last few weeks could be seen as an indication that liquidation is increasing with growing slaughter rates relative to a year ago. However, by this time last year, most of the drought-forced liquidation was past and beef cow slaughter had dropped back to more seasonally typical levels. In other words, weekly beef cow slaughter has dropped back to single-digit decreases from last year after spending much of the year with double digit decreases, but it really says more about what was happening last year than this year. Read more.
The Daily Livestock Report
CME analysts offer an estimate of Friday, Dec. 21, Cattle-on-Feed Report.
Analysts expect USDA’s December Cattle-on-Feed Report, due out on Friday afternoon, Dec. 21, to continue the pattern of the past few months, indicating lower cattle numbers in the surveyed feedlots. The results of the Dow Jones pre-report survey of analysts appear in the graphs accompanying this article.
As has been the case with the last several reports, most attention is likley to focus on the placement number, given the U.S. pasture and range conditions and progressively smaller calf crops. Relative to recent months, analysts expect this month’s number to be closer to the 2012 level.
Should the analysts’ average prediction of 93.4% of the year-ago level be true, it would imply the smallest year-on-year reduction in both actual numbers and percentage since June. Read more.
Global Beef Prices to Reach Record Levels in 2013
The final quarter of 2012 has seen the global beef market characterized by slightly larger supply, driven mainly by the natural recovery of herds in Brazil, Argentina and Australia. This, combined with a relatively lethargic world economy, has weighed on prices across the globe.
Among the most important cattle-exporting countries, prices only went up in local currencies in the United States and New Zealand. These increases may not be high enough to offset the recent spike in costs, with the placements of cattle on feed in the United States being cut.
In November, the Rabobank Global Cattle Price Index dropped 2% from Q3 levels. This was mainly driven by the decline realized in Brazil, Australia, Argentina and Canada, which more than offset the rise seen in the United States and New Zealand. Read more.
CAB Mythbusters
What they thought they knew that just ain't true.
I am somewhat of a Certified Angus Beef® (CAB®) evangelist.
I’m not a fire-and-brimstone-style crusader. I know everybody has their own tastes, but I want everybody to base their choice on good information. I now have most of my family members (and quite a few friends, too) trained to look for the CAB logo before associating beef with my company, and before they shell out a pretty penny for a lower-quality hunk of meat. I’d like to think I’ve single-handedly saved many a dinner party or Saturday night supper club selection — but I digress.
There’s nothing like a comment from a close friend to bring you back to reality: “I just had one of your Certified Angus Beef burgers at McDonald’s.”
Well, there it is. I have more work to do. Read more.
The Source
What a difference a year makes!
Technology, weather, kids and our operations all continue to change and move forward much faster than we do sometimes.
My dad and brother decided they needed to get on board with technology, so they purchased a guidance system for their operation. If you can’t turn on a computer, why do you think you can just pop a guidance system in a tractor and it will drive itself around? You need some guidance to know what to purchase, how to set it up and, most of all, how to run the thing.
AngusSource® offers guidance every step of the way when you decide to enroll your calves in our age- and source-verification program. Read more.
Beef Export Values Increase
October pork exports set new monthly record;
beef export value also strong.
U.S. pork exports set new monthly records in October, according to statistics released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), reaching 218,132 metric tons (mt) valued at $607 million. Export volume was 9% above last year and broke the previous monthly record of 217,080 mt set in November 2011. Export value exceeded $600 million for the first time, breaking the previous high ($597.85 million, also from November 2011) by 1.5%. Read more.
Federation of State Beef Councils to Celebrate 50th
Historic involvement of state councils in National Checkoff Program
helps assure link to grassroots.
Today’s beef checkoff program got its start in 1985 when the Beef Promotion and Research Act was passed by Congress. The Act established a $1-per-head assessment on the sale of each bovine animal in the United States, plus each imported animal or an equivalent on imported product, for the purpose of creating a promotion, research and education fund that would help increase demand for beef.
Most who pay into the program know this. What is less well-known is that grassroots producers at the state level not only helped make it possible, but had funded national beef promotion programs for many years prior to 1985 through the Federation of State Beef Councils. The Federation will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2013. Read more.
Angus Calendar
To view the Angus Calendar, a complete list of Angus sales, click here.