A livestock economist says cattle markets are starting 2024 in a much better position than they were last year. University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says markets performed well last week. “We called cattle up $2.50 this week with the early information,” he says. “I’ll say that’s about $1.75 for fed cattle prices that gets us there. Just realize we started 2023 with $1.58 for fed cattle.”
Brown says there was a lot of volatility in the markets in 2023.