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The impact of this year’s natural disasters on the cattle markets

The livestock sector has been hit especially hard by natural disasters this year.

From the flooding that came with Hurricane Harvey, the severe drought in Montana and the Dakotas, and the wildfires through much of the west – it’s been a challenging year for cattle producers.

University of Missouri livestock economist Scott Brown says while individually those disasters might not have an impact on the markets, the combination of them could provide at least some price support.  But, he says, only time will tell.  “All those things maybe help press down on the growth in beef cow inventory that we otherwise would have expected,” he says.  “You don’t wish that on anyone, but from a price perspective that’s maybe a little bit of positive news as we get into ’18 and ’19 with a little bit less of a supply of calves than we otherwise would have thought.”

Texas A&M’s David Anderson tells Brownfield the part of Texas hit by Hurricane Harvey accounts for more than 25 percent of the state’s cattle herd and there will be some losses.  “But I think that would is pretty hard to say that would cut into our nation’s herd so significantly we would see really large price increases.”