– Garth Ruff, Beef Cattle Field Specialist, OSU Extension
There’s are opportunities during this ‘bull’ market.
“They’re coming around the stretch and heeeere they go!” Over the past couple of summers, I have found myself chauffeuring my parents to several county fairs watching the harness racing programs. While I am not a horseman by any means (that’s my father to some degree), I do enjoy watching them race. Most of the time it’s a fast paced competition, and usually a thrilling finish, unless the horse I wagered $2 ends up off stride and out of the money.
So far this cattle market in 2025 has been that kind of exciting, with every week as of late setting a track record. Who would have every thought we would see feeder cattle worth $1,600 to $1,800 and fed cattle selling around $2.20? At least as of writing this it looks like we haven’t seen the high, and expectations are the beef cow inventory will be lower for yet the sixth consecutive year.
Now is the prime opportunity for cattle producers to think about the long game for the rest of 2025 and beyond. Here at almost the quarter pole of the year there are few things producers need to consider.
Buy good bulls, as Roger Huston, the track announcer at the Morgan County Fair and Little Brown Jug would say “Don’t get shutout! Wager now!”. Take some of the profit from the 2024 calf crop and invest in the future of your herd. A bad bull buying decision takes about 12 years to recover from. With the prices calves have sold for going back to last fall, squirreling away a percentage of each head sold should have some buying power come bull sale season.
As forage greens up give your grass a grade, especially if you were in an area of long term drought. In order to maintain cow numbers, don’t gamble on forage this spring. Turning out too early will only set the grass growth back if it was short going into winter. Summer annuals maybe an option to supplement forage coming out of the drought.
Hedge your risk. I know I have mentioned this before, but given the value of calves today it is worth repeating. As we head towards the finish line with calves being born in 2025, considering their potential value I do believe risk management practices such as Livestock Risk Protection or some sort of plan will prevent some angst if the pace of this market slows down.
The quarterly cattle on feed report showed 1% fewer cattle in feedlots than in January 2024, the January 1st cows and calves inventory report has yet to come out, but as mentioned before there is no indication of much expansion/heifer retention at the current time. Heifer retention will put further strain on fed cattle supplies.
Hold on to the edge of your seat for a wild ride for a while, think about how to reinvest any profit, and have a plan should for any reason this market break stride. Hope to many of you at the 2025 Ohio Beef Expo and as always Eat Beef.