Searching for Stability in the Beef Market

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Cattle markets will likely continue to trend lower, although at a slower rate than we saw for much of 2015 and early 2016, according to the senior analyst with Canfax.

“We’ve been through such a massive adjustment here, I think the bulk of the pain is over,” says Brian Perillat in this interview at the Canadian Beef Industry Conference in Calgary last week.

“Fed cattle prices dropped over $850/head in a little over a year — I don’t think that’s going to happen again, but that all said, if you look at the projections, bigger cattle numbers in North America, lots of pork around, global markets aren’t particularly strong — we’re probably going to trend lower,” he says.

Lower prices will slow or even stop herd expansion in the U.S., which could bring stability to the market, notes Perillat.

“Most of us think the market is pricing in these new volumes. Expansion is going to slow down, so we’re not going to see these big rapid changes in supplies either, so that helps the market find an equilibrium,” he says.

Perillat joined Shaun Haney to discuss what it will take to bring stability to the beef market, trade and more:

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