Topic
6 stories, newest first.
One is a venereal disease that turns a 92 percent conception rate into 60 and has no treatment. The other is a virus carried by a calf that looks normal and sheds it to every animal it stands next to. Both are found with a cheap test at the chute. Who to test, when, and what to do with a positive.
Oct 19
The national cattle herd sits at a multi-decade low and demand is the strongest in forty years. What's missing is heifer retention — which is why analysts keep pushing real expansion out another year.
Sep 10
USDA wants the herd rebuilt. The market is paying you not to. A worked example of what a retained heifer has to be worth in 2028 to beat selling her in October 2026, and the three things that decide it.
Sep 9
USDA asked ranchers to keep heifers on a Monday. The White House confirmed 300,000 tons of tariff-free foreign beef that Friday. One of those messages is going to be believed, and it is not the one with the two-year payoff.
Sep 6
Placements down 11 percent, marketings down 7 percent, both record lows for July. On-feed inventory is still 2 percent above last year because cattle are staying on feed longer. What the numbers say about the next six months.
Sep 2
Heifer-retention insurance, a guaranteed loan program for regional packers, and a federal buy-American-beef push headline the August 31 announcement. What is real money and what is still a proposal.
Sep 1
