NEWS

You live and you learn, right?

Vern Terrell readily admits he has. A diversified cattleman in the western edge of the Nebraska Sandhills – who farms and ranches alongside his wife, Marjean, his son Brock and his wife, Heidi – was willing to share what he considers to be “game-changers” for his operation with producers at the National Grazing Conference in Reno, Nevada.

While the partial government shutdown remains in force, market reports are no longer happening, but some market experts are able to give some insight as to what 2019 might have in store for the U.S. cattle market.

Evolving market dynamics make it easy to underestimate how the impacts and costs of trade issues will continue to grow in 2019. Many agricultural markets have been impacted thus far, and the damage will grow and spread unless resolutions are forthcoming promptly. Trade issues will have accumulating impacts in a variety of ways as more time passes.

As the partial government shutdown completes its fourth week, the gaps left by many government agencies whose responsibilities are left unattended until further notice are starting to show. One of the most far-reaching concerns is the livestock market reports usually provided by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service and the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The lawsuit filed by the company that makes Tofurky meat substitute (Turtle Island Foods Inc.) and the Good Food Institute (GFI) is shaping up to be a drawn-out battle over a number of legal issues – this, before the question of the legality of the state’s definition of “meat” for commercial purposes is even broached.