Tight Cattle Supplies

As we close another week in January the cattle industry is making headlines again. This time it is all about cattle supply and how tight it truly is. While the packers are trying to maintain the narrative that the reduced slaughter hours and decreased weekly kills stems from demand from the consumer, that clearly isn't it when boxed beef spread is showing something different. A lot of industry professionals are pointing towards producers holding cattle for better prices which then leads to overall grading of the cattle to come back as Choice rather than Prime. At the end of the day the cattle numbers aren't out there to replace what is being sold and if they are out there they are way too high priced for most people to have the ability to purchase. The next few months are going to continue to show tight inventory numbers but what that actually does to the market, only time will tell.