A livestock economist says he’s optimistic about the outlook for the U.S. cattle industry.
Don Close with Rabo AgriFinance says contraction in the cattle herd and the added processing capacity helps. “If you take the two years it takes to get new construction up and running, we will see increasing slaughter capacity come into the market at the very time our cattle supply is contracting and that is what is going to drive that price leverage in favor of producers.”
He tells Brownfield the industry added 6 million head from 2014 to 2019 but didn’t increase slaughter capacity, which benefited the nation’s meat processors.
