Anyone with an eye on mainstream media or the meat shelves in the grocery store won’t be surprised to hear that the average beef retail price has hit another record high, weighing in at $19.69/kg.
“That’s up 3% from last month, but more importantly i think — this is what people are going to hone into — it’s up 17% from May of last year,” says Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock, in this Beef Market Update.
And that shouldn’t be a real shocker, she points out, with fat cattle prices 29% higher than a year ago. With steady demand and low supply comes increased prices, or what Wasko calls a “classic market-at-work story.”
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Continues below audio…
Lyndsey Smith and Anne Wasko talk about the beef market, highlighting retail prices, fat cattle, export across the American border and the potential impact of drought.
But good retail prices alone don’t spell happy times for producers, many of whom are struggling with the prospect of high feed prices following droughts and floods in much of western Canada and the United States.
“It’s frustrating, especially at the cow/calf level, because I think from a feed supply/feed cost perspective, prices and margins certainly were pointing towards moving towards expanding the cow herd a bit.”
And that’s frustrating because, says Wasko, we are in “desperate need” of herd expansion in Canada.
Follow this link to hear this Beef Market Update.
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