From staff reports OKLAHOMA CITY – Stockman Oklahoma Livestock Marketing partner Bob Rodenberger recently assessed the strength of Oklahoma’s cattle market.
“Agriculture is in r eally good shape,” Rodenberger said.
“We have got people trying to buy calves to get on wheat quick enough to get some of this w heat eaten up because you have got cheap wheat, but it has main tained a high calf market,” he said. “ If you have got calves to sell and you are in a dilemma, you can’t make a bad decision when your average calf is bringing $1,500 to $1,900 per he ad when you sell your calves depending on how big the y are.”
Due to grazing value, Rodenberger said that newborn calves weighing between 500 and 700 pounds are advantageous to the ma rket.
Due to industry efficiency, he added, less cat tle are needed to produce the same product from years prior.
“A year ago, our carcasses were 20 pounds bigger than they were the year prior” he said. “ That is like having 600,000 extra cattle coming out of the f eed yard, and we got fewer cattle. We don’t need more cattle to have more beef.”
For those wanting to increase their income, Rodenberger suggested looking into changes, such as breeding and genetics.
“The industry knows the difference today,” he said. “ That guy who is running a set of cow s that is pa rt longhorn and he is p utting an English bull on them ca n bring $300 per head less than your neighbors who are running the bet ter-quality cattle.”