Market Volatility in the Cattle Market Insights

The current volatility and cattle markets have generated considerable attention. And the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is actively engaged in understanding these market dynamics. Ethan lane is the vice president of NCBA and offers insights into this hot button issue.

“The fluctuations that we've seen because of some of those cattle on feed reports over the last few months that have maybe been higher than outside money in the futures market was expecting to see and the resulting sort of flood of money out of the marketplace and the volatility that creates, or you know, some of the kind of rumors, unfounded rumors that we've seen circulating around programs like livestock risk protection, you know, as you dig into those things, and you kind of get some assurances that look, these programs are safe. They're backed by a lot of cash that has to be there in order to make sure that those products are safe for producers to use.”

Lane says despite recent market softening, high demand continues and an established support system prevents producers from experiencing major losses.

“Even with regional challenges such as drought and limited grazing, the overall trajectory of the cattle market continues than an upward trend.

There are all these outside factors that kind of contribute to this but at the end of the day, what we know is that herd contraction is continuing there are going to be less cattle than there were a year ago. That means less beef available in the marketplace. That will should ultimately mean higher prices for everybody in that supply chain, as some of these fluctuations work their way through.”

NCBA Vice President Ethan Lane.