? for US folks in agriculture - Page 1

we have had reports that commercial (not stud quality) heifers in the US are selling for $3000. this is outrageusly high. stems from a lack of supply due to poor seasons. anyone got any info first hand as to what is going on?

Beef has pretty much doubled here.

i found this, severe winters following prolonged drought and smallest herd size since the 50's cited as the cause. i did not know you guys ever had droughts???

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/14/cattle-weather-usa-idUSL2N0T42NB20141114

Parts of the US have been under extreme drought for the last 3 or 4 years. Other parts are well above average precipitation the last few years. The weather is changing for sure and the seasons seem to be less seasonal.

same here, but we only ever had two seasons to start with. the old timers are perplexed, they could read the signs and bank on it. it is all random and extreme drought followed by extreme floods, none of which does the farmer any good.

seems asians have got the taste for beef and if we could get some luck with the seasons we stand to make a lot of money supplying that market, alas on current trends we soon won't be able to supply ourselves. 

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/apr/08/business/la-fi-beef-prices-20140406

Vk this was predicted years ago.

Our wonderful government mandated that gasoline contain a certain % of ethanol. Ethanol is made from grain, primarily corn.

So low and behold our farmers discovered they could make more money selling corn for ethanol than selling it for feed.

Bottom line, the price of feed went way up, which of course was passed on to the price of beef. 

The U.S. is the world's largest producer of field corn, at 13 billion bushels a year. Sweet corn, the kind we eat on the cob, is less than 1% of total corn grown.

Since 2005, more and more of the nation's field corn crop has gone to create ethanol. Fuel blenders are obliged under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act to mix a certain amount of eligible biofuels into the gasoline they sell. The blenders receive a tax credit of 45 cents per gallon of ethanol.

"For corn-based biofuels such as ethanol, the current mandate (under EISA) is 12.6 billion gallons, which increases to 15 billion in 2015 and remains at that level," says Tom Capehart, a USDA biofuels expert.

At this year's level, 39% of U.S. field corn is used to produce the gasoline substitute. A third of that comes back into the food supply as distillers' grains, a by-product of ethanol production, which can be added to animal feed, bringing the total down to 24%.

Yep, something that happened 7 to 10 years ago is now causing beef prices to skyrocket. Ask any farmer and they will tell you the main reason beef prices have double in the last year. Floods and drought have absolutely nothing to do with the price of corn, only ethanol, which was promoted by the Bush administration.

Rolls eyes.

Since it appears to me that you (GSD) have nothing better to do than post derogatory remarks directly after my posts on most threads, why don't you post a graph of beef prices over the last 7 yrs or so. I believe you will find they have gone up continually. How about a graph of the last 7 years corn (feed) prices.

Corn is a cattle feed and a large % goes to ethanol, and in 2015 that % increases, apparently you didn't read what I just posted. I remember reading several articles (years ago) that clearly stated (when ethanol was mandated) that the by-product would be an enormous increase in the price of beef. That has come to fruitation.

Never forget I'm a trained professional.