April 5, 2021 | Vol. 14 : No. 3
The value of the U.S. dollar weakened substantially since March 2020 and is expected to experience modest deflation in 2021. A weaker dollar generally makes U.S. agricultural products more competitive on the global export market. However, not all commodities are affected equally given the diversity in global export competition and foreign exchange rates.
Evolve or die. We are all familiar with the statement, but it isn’t one many of us really like to focus on. It truly is a rather harsh assessment. I think it is human nature to focus on the more positive parts of the two sides of universal laws. When it comes to God, it is easy to accept the concept that God is love. It’s a little more difficult to accept that He is just. We all can embrace the beauty of nature, but we get a little uncomfortable when we look at the brutal cycles Mother Nature inevitably creates.
A series of videos developed and released through a new partnership between the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, and Chef’s Roll Inc. reached more than 1.3 million viewers in its initial launch. The videos highlight the importance of the Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) program for the ranchers who raise the cattle and the chefs who serve high-quality beef to their customers.
Learning to ski or play chess in later life is neither easy nor impossible. Marketing finished cattle on a grid is like that. It isn’t intuitive, but it is learnable.
Cattlemen who would increase net returns first see the annual patterns when supply and demand align with seasonal premium spikes and valleys for high-quality cattle. Grid marketing represents a way to capture more net return by similarly aligning genetics, management and performance.
The latest monthly trade data were released by USDA Economic Research Service and Foreign Agricultural Service this past Friday. The data released were for January 2021 and showed total beef and veal exports by carcass weight were up slightly (0.4%) from January 2020 at 246 million pounds. Beef and veal imports were down 8.1% from a year ago at 224 million pounds.
I was very surprised to get a wonderful batch of cookies in the mail the other day. Everyone who knows me is keenly aware I like food and especially cookies. I was helping a friend understand verification programs better. Verification programs and promoting Angus genetics is what I do every day. She needed a little guidance on what each program did and the benefits the different claims could offer. I was more than happy to help her navigate this unique landscape.
Kansas State University (K-State) researchers have completed a large study of 211 livestock video auctions, analyzing the sale of more than 60,000 beef calf and feeder cattle lots to determine the effect of trucking distance on sale price of the calves.
