Over the past couple years, the cattle industry has navigated two Black Swan events, with the most recent being supply chain challenges because of the coronavirus pandemic. CattleFax CEO Randy Blach told cattle producers that nearly 1 million head of fat cattle were backed up as a result. “The slaughter is pretty well back on pace, but record tonnage is being put through the system. That is testing these markets that are still under-performing relative to the potential out front.” The markets have somewhat recovered from lows in the summer of 2020. At that point, cattle were selling for $95 per hundredweight. Cash cattle prices are now around $114 per cwt. Blach realizes that cattle producers are frustrated with the current market situation but does believe a more optimistic outlook lies ahead. “There have been weather impacts the last couple weeks that will shave some tonnage off these markets, and we’re now in a situation where global demand for ag products will increase. This should be a nice run for the ag industry over the next three-to-four years.” This industry update was provided during the virtual Cattle Industry Convention “Winter Reboot” event. Listen to the full story.