At Thursday’s Red River Farm Network Market Forum, AgMarket.Net market analyst Tyler Schau said low feed prices have been the secret to high cattle prices. “Every feeder that we work with has under $1 a pound cost of gain,” said Schau. “We work with a lot of producers in western Iowa that feed cattle and they are also big corn producers; they’d rather walk the corn off the farm than truck it.” In Schau’s view, the cost of gain is the biggest difference between now and the last uptick in the cattle marketing cycle in 2014/2015. The current high cost of feeder calves may be a deterrent, but “they’ve done well with the last three turns on cattle and if they don’t buy more cattle, they’ll have to pay taxes.”
