Current Economic Climate of the Beef Cattle Industry

2011 was, in many ways, a year of contrasts for the cattle industry. Regionally, extreme drought conditions in the Southern Plains were contrasted with excellent forage conditions in much of the northern half of the country. As a result of these climate extremes, herd expansion, that began in some northern states in 2010 and continued in 2011, was more than offset by the largest single year cattle liquidations from the states of Oklahoma and Texas. The result as another year of declining beef cow inventories in the U.S. despite record calf prices that provides considerable incentive to rebuild the U.S. beef cow herd