Beef Market Update: Another Setback as Fall Calf Run Peaks

Cattle markets, led by the futures in Chicago, took another tumble this week.

Anne Wasko

Anne Wasko

“It’s been discouraging, disappointing, but again markets have shown us this this fall, when they make a move, it tends to be pretty violent or erratic,” says Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock in this latest Beef Market Update. “We don’t seem to move in nickels or dimes anymore. It seems to be in limits up or limits down, one way or the other.”

It’s looking like fall calf run volumes peaked this week, which she explains is adding logistics-related downward pressure on values.

With the beef cycle highs in the past, she says it’s time to make a game plan for more volatility in 2016.

“Just hoping these markets are going to work out isn’t the way to look at things right now,” she says.

Related: Beef Market Update: It Could Be Worse

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