Cattle Prices Near Record Levels to Finish 2024

Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist

 

Feeder auction trading is finished for the year with new record prices in 2024. Combined Oklahoma auction prices for 500-pound steers (M/L, Number 1) averaged $320.14/cwt. with the highest weekly price of $360.99/cwt in early December.  The average price this year was up 18.6 percent year over year and was up 62.6 percent over 2022 levels.  The 2024 average price exceeded the previous record high in 2015 by 21.3 percent.

 

The average price of 800-pound steers (M/L, Number 1) this year was $247.43.cwt, up 14.7 percent year over year and up 50.5 percent over 2022 levels.  The highest weekly price for these big feeder steers was $264.74/cwt. in early July and only slightly below that in December.  The 2024 average price exceeded the previous annual record in 2015 by 21.6 percent.

 

Just a few more fed cattle are expected to trade to wrap up December.  The 5-Market average fed price for 50 weeks through mid-December was $186.66/cwt., up six percent year over year and up 29.2 percent over 2022 fed prices.  The 2024 average price is 21.3 percent higher than the previous high price in 2014.  The highest weekly fed price was $197.09/cwt. in early July and is expected to end the year with prices close to that level. 

 

Figure 1. Fed and Feeder Steer Prices. Oklahoma Combined Auction and 5-Mkt, Monthly, $/cwt.

 

Figure 1 shows how feeder and fed cattle prices have developed over the past 15 years.  The current high prices are reminiscent of the cyclical peak prices of 2014 – 2015 with both having been provoked by drought exaggerated herd liquidations. However, some very important differences mean that the current situation will play out in a much different fashion going forward.  The herd rebuild in 2014 – 2019 was sharp and rapid, leading to relatively brief high prices lasting about two years.  This was possible because the pipeline of replacement heifers had been building prior to herd expansion.  With two years of high prices already in 2023-2024, there is no indication that cyclically high prices will be as short lived as a decade ago. The pipeline of replacement heifers has continued to be depleted to this point.  The cattle industry has shown no signs of attempting to rebuild the herd yet and the process will be slower when it does happen.  The peak prices in 2014-2015 coincided with increased heifer retention that squeezed feeder supplies to the tightest levels.  Since no heifer retention has occurred yet, the highest prices are ahead, possibly in 2025 but more likely beyond. 

 

The inventory status of the cattle industry will be revealed in the annual Cattle report from USDA-NASS in late January.  Many cattle producers will be receiving the annual inventory survey shortly.  Producers are encouraged to complete the survey to provide good information for the industry.  Reliable, accurate responses from producers is the only way for all producers, the industry and analysts to have timely and comprehensive information in order to plan and manage for the coming months and years. 

 

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Looking Ahead to 2025

Mark Z. Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

2024 has been an interesting year and 2025 looks very promising for those in the cattle business.

 

As 2024 ends, Oklahoma cattlemen and women say goodbye to a year of record high cattle prices, one of the driest falls ever for most of the state and a summer that lasted until November. In the month of November most of the state received drought breaking rains and the renewed potential for cool season pasture in 2025.

 

Low cow inventories, low corn prices, heifer retention (or lack thereof) and long-term weather forecast are encouraging signs that 2025 has much potential for those in the cow-calf sector.

 

As we look ahead to 2025, make sure you have colostrum on hand, know where your calving kit is stored and heifers and cows are in adequate body condition BEFORE the start of calving season.

 

Be prepared for the spike in your cow herd’s nutritional requirements after calving and in cold weather.

 

Give thought to your marketing plan for the calves you raise in 2025.

 

Thanks for reading and best of luck in 2025!

 

SunUpTV presents their favorite segments from 2024 to celebrate the Holidays from December 21, 2024. 

 

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Can We Graze the Same Number of Calves when Wheat Pasture is Limited?

Paul Beck, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Beef Cattle Nutrition Specialist

 

Last week, I discussed that we can increased performance of growing calves on wheat pasture by providing a small amount of a concentrate supplement carrying an ionophore and minerals that are deficient in wheat pasture. In many areas of Oklahoma and the Southern Plains, wheat pasture this year has yielded much less than our normal expectations, but there are economic incentives to graze as many calves on pasture as possible this winter. Additionally, there are several options available to offset the reduced forage allowance of wheat pastures this winter and maintain expected gains of grazing calves.

 

Using a Self-Fed Supplement

Providing grains or byproduct feeds free-choice in a bulk feeder has historically been an option when feed is cheap. Even though there is risk in feeding free choice, providing whole corn or ground grain sorghum choice results in as fed intake of 1.5 to 2.0% of bodyweight with doubling of stocking rates. This resulted in increased performance but required 9 to 10 pounds of concentrate supplement per pound of added gain. Based on current prices of calves and futures prices on feeders, the calculated value of gain is conservatively around $1.20 per pound. For a self-fed concentrate supplement to break even, feed costs should be $241/ton or less ($6.75/bushel of corn) which may work if you have corn or other feed grains locally available.

 

Hand-Feeding at a Moderate Supplement Rate

Research from the OSU Wheat Pasture Research Unit at Marshall (Horn and others 1995, Journal of Animal Science Volume 73,  https://doi.org/10.2527/1995.73145x) showed that providing a concentrate supplement (based on either corn or a soyhull/wheat middling blend) containing monensin at 0.65 to 0.75% of body weight (for example, 4 pounds per day for a 533-pound steer) increased potential stocking rate by 33% and weight gains by 0.3 pounds per day. The increased stocking rate and increase in performance of grazing calves is a powerful economic tool in managing wheat pasture, with supplemental efficiency of 5 pounds of supplement required per pound of added gain per acre.

 

This supplementation program can also be used to “stretch” wheat forage when pastures were 60 to 80% of normal, allowing for “normal” stocking rates. Recently researchers  at OSU (McNeill and others, 2020, Journal of Animal Science, Volume 98, https://doi.org/10.1093/jas/skz397.023) stocked steers on wheat pastures at forage allowances of either 1.5 or 3 pounds of forage DM/pound of steer bodyweight with or without 3.3 pounds per day of a wheat middling/soyhull feed blend. Steers on the higher forage allowance (3.0 lbs forage DM/ lb steer bodyweight) with supplementation gained the most (3.8 lbs/day) while unsupplemented steers on the higher forage allowance gained 3.6 lbs/day. Supplementation increased gains more for steers at the lower forage allowance where gains of steers stocked at forage allowance of 1.5 lbs forage DM/lb steer bodyweight increased from 2.5 to 3.2 lbs/day with supplementation.

 

Using Good Quality Hay or Silage

Intake of low-quality roughages is not high enough to offset wheat forage intake and can reduce performance of growing calves, but in the 1980’s, research showed that offering high quality roughages such as corn silage or sorghum double stocking rates on wheat pastures. This research was repeated by offering bermudagrass round bale silage to steers stocked at 1, 1.5 or 2 steers per acre with forage allowances going from 2.9 to 1.2 lbs forage/lb of bodyweight (Beck and others, Applied Animal Science, 2023, Volume 40, https://doi.org/10.15232/aas.2023-02466). Offering round bale silage at the lowest stocking rate actually increased gains compared with steers at the same stocking rate without silage (3.15 vs 2.79 lbs/day). As we increased stocking rate, average daily gain decreased, but total gain per acre increased by 52% when stocking rates were doubled. Based on this research, we should be able to maintain our normal stocking rates on wheat pasture during the fall and winter with adequate ADG by feeding moderate quality forages even if wheat forage production is 50% below our normal expectations.

 

There are some feeding options available to us when the economic conditions are right, but forage conditions are lacking. Feeding either limited concentrate supplementation or moderate quality roughage during the fall can increase production stability and thus improve economic stability of the wheat stocker enterprise.

 

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Unit Cost of Production (UCOP) Workshops on Deck for 2025

Scott Clawson, OSU Cooperative Extension, NE Area Economist

 

Maybe the best gift Santa could deliver in 2024 is cash cattle prices surging into the new year. For me, 2024 has been a great ag economics teacher giving real-world lessons in revenues, input costs, cash flow, and planning for those big-ticket asset buys. Great cattle prices bring big sale barn checks (revenues). The price of hay and feed has also moderated (input costs). Collectively, this has welcomed in better liquidity, working capital, and cash flow for cattle producers in Oklahoma. 

 

So, what’s the catch? The catch is that the cost of doing business has also increased.  Putting on my analyst hat, could we have a capital asset storm brewing (again)? For this discussion, we will simplify capital assets into cows and machinery/equipment. Recent bred female sales have yielded the high prices that we have all been anticipating and machinery and equipment prices have also increased rapidly.   Investments in these areas will impact the bottom line for years to come. Building the framework to calculate cost of production and knowing how it works will help producers through that decision making process. Additionally, it can help outline where our operation is creating value, what segments of the ranch are leaking value, and what it costs economically.

 

Limited to 15 participants each, our UCOP workshop will work through the process to calculate the UCOP of a sample ranch. While walking through the process as a group we will talk about the issues facing cow-calf producers today and evaluate the options we have. This is a discussion-based activity with no PowerPoint presentations. At the end of the day, we will have calculated the cost per pound of weaned calf on our sample ranch and have acquired information to aid in decision making.  Please RSVP if you would like to attend.