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Market analyst has guarded optimism for the beef industry

A market analyst says expansion has slowed in the beef industry, but it isn’t over.

Kevin Good with CattleFax told producers during its Outlook session that lower input costs and favorable conditions mean contraction in the beef industry isn’t likely yet.  “We would suggest, as we go through this year, we would expand this beef cattle herd by an additional 400,000 head,” he said.

And Good said increasing supplies indicate more volatility in prices.  He says while the beef industry has seen the bulk of the downturn of the market – it isn’t over.  “With increasing supplies of beef, pork, and poultry we need to recognize that the long-term headwinds of supply will suggest the market will have more down in it over the next few years,” he said.

Good predicts fed cattle prices to average between $98 and $124 dollars per hundred weight in 2017.

AUDIO: Kevin Good, CattleFax