IS THE CATTLE PARTY OVER? - how longcan these good times last in the cattle business?

摘要

They won't end anytime soon. It takes a long time to turn around beef supply, which has fallen to a 50-year low. When you decide to save back and develop a heifer, she's a year old. Then there's nearly another year of pregnancy, and nearly two more years waiting for her calf to fatten up. That's three or four more years of short beef supplies.Still, the easiest money in the cattle business may be behind us, say the cattle market experts at CattleFax. Before thousands of attentive and smiling cattle producers recently at the Cattle Industry Convention, they said the highs in the cattle marketwere probably made in the last quarter of 2014, possibly stretching through the first half of this year.Things won't fall apart after that. However, don't expect fed cattle to go off the charts like last year at over $1.70 a pound, carrying feeder calf prices up with them, and don't expect record profits again. Here are some reasons why.