– Dr. Andrew Griffith, Assistant Professor, Livestock Marketing Specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Tennessee
With high priced females in the market, can a person be profitable purchasing or retaining those females, and how long will the strong market prices remain? If the answer was known for sure by anyone then they could take advantage of the market opportunity. However, given that no one knows the exact answer, here are a few thoughts.
The calf market should see relatively high prices for at least three more years. The contradiction to that statement is that calf prices did not remain strong during the last rebuilding phase. No reason to argue that, but a more moderate growth rate or expansion rate is expected this time, which means calf prices will remain elevated longer.
In response to purchasing females and their profitability, how much can a person make with cattle if they have no cattle? If cattle are purchased then there is always a possibility of losing money, but it is guaranteed there will be no money made in cattle if a person does not own any. The alternative is renting all of the pasture and hay ground to me!