INDUSTRY NEWS

When the COVID-19 pandemic first ignited a global shutdown earlier this year, U.S. ranchers experienced a livestock backlog of monumental proportions. As global trade stalled to mitigate spread of the virus, consolidation of slaughterhouses exacerbated production bottlenecks as virus hotspots emerged within our nation’s major meat processing plants.

The September Cattle on Feed report was largely a replay of the August report with larger than expected placements pushing feedlot inventories higher.

In July, the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the mid-year Cattle report, which provided a snapshot of U.S. cattle inventory as well as a glimpse into cow-calf producers’ intentions for retaining heifers.

Climate change is an important, ongoing issue in both social and scientific worlds.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden outlined their goals and priorities for U.S. agriculture in a questionnaire distributed by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF).

The percentage of steer and heifer carcasses grading Prime so far during 2020 has outpaced normal levels. The average percent Prime for the first seven months of 2020 was 10.6%, which is the highest January-July average on record and about 2% higher than during the first seven months of 2019.