50 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN August 2026 in 2025. Further, the inbound product mix is changing just a bit from the historical norms of virtually all imports being lean product (i.e., trim) destined for grinding, with isolated ads now featuring imported cuts as a value-focused item in some U.S. locations. USDA’s June 1 cattle-on-feed data showed first-of-month inventories in Nebraska up 3 percent vs. year-ago levels. And the NC-MRS June 1 cattleon-feed data summary showed marketing intentions in reporting feedyards for Sept. 1, 2026, and beyond to be up 6 percent compared to 2025. Combining an increase in market-ready inventories during the late third and fourth quarters of this year with carcass weights that are currently trending approximately 35 pounds heavier than last year would suggest that fed cattle weekly beef production levels could out-pace year-ago levels by a fair amount into the last few months of 2026. Some data points, and the last year’s steep market advance, would suggest that herd expansion efforts are surely underway in some locations. However, we’ll point out again that this expansion effort still faces a number of headwinds (lack of rainfall in some areas, higher interest rates, up-front cost of bred or to-be-bred females, etc.) and will not be akin to the aggressive rebuild following the 2011-2012 drought-forced beef cow liquidation. The market drivers are different and there are many more extra-market factors in play this time around. For the time being, production-level margins will be concentrated at the cow-calf level as the two overbuilt sectors beyond it in the production chain continue to send market signals to eventually “buy more cows.” ~NC~ CONSIDER THIS MARKETS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 48 To advertise in Nebraska Cattleman, contact sales representative Amber Coleman acoleman@necattlemen.org.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTMxNTA5