New Year Brings Great Promise
contributed article by Kirk Lynch
Lynch Livestock Inc. and Humeston Livestock Exchange, Humeston, Iowa
Welcome to 2025! The year 2024 was great for cattle markets and it sure appears like we are sitting in a great situation going into 2025 and hopefully beyond. Now, let us get into what we are seeing in the barns and markets.
As I write this article, we have just recently had a favorable development with the suspension of importing live cattle from Mexico. The disruption of imports from Mexico has boosted the feeder cattle market and will continue to do so if there are no imports coming from the south. Mexico accounts for a little over 3 percent of the annual calf crop and with already tight numbers the longer we have zero or limited cattle from the south the stronger the feeder market will get.
I do not know if it will last 10 days, a month, or six months but feeders will be in high demand during this time. In the first week, we have seen feeder cattle jumping in the barns $5 to $10. I would also think there will be a flood of feeder cattle coming north as soon as this screwworm issue is resolved affecting the feeder market to go the other way.
Fat cattle have seen a nice little rally here as of late with several cattle selling the $1.90s. Exceptionally good demand at the meat counter during the holiday season can be thanked for this. I look for this to be steady going into the new year.
The weigh up bull and cow market should follow the fat cattle market especially moving into the first quarter of 2025. While this market has been stagnant as it is always late fall, I look for it to pick up after the first of the year as these numbers get tighter.
There are really no signs or indications of the cow herd rebuilding; breeding stock has been and should continue going into the new year to be in high demand. The interest and calls we have had from people looking for bred stock has been as many as I can remember and as early as I can remember. Several bred heifers bringing/being priced anywhere from $2,750 all the way up to the high $3,000 range. I think we will see several front-end bred heifers bring $3,500 to $4,000 here in the next couple of months. Bred cows to follow as they will bring and have been bringing anywhere in the $2,000 range. I expect seedstock bull and heifer sales to be excellent this coming season as well.
I hope everyone had a great holiday season and wishing everyone a safe and bountiful 2025. Until next month!
Kirk Lynch, Lynch Livestock Inc., Lineville, Iowa
Kirk is the beef division manager for Lynch Livestock Inc. and oversees all aspects of their backgrounding and cattle feeding operations throughout Iowa and Kansas. He is also deeply involved in the Humeston Livestock Exchange in Humeston, Iowa. In addition, Kirk and his wife Mary own and operate Heartland Simmentals in northeast Iowa, which is a seedstock operation that consists of 500 registered Simmental and Angus cows. They have four children: Gabrielle (11), Brayden (9), Vivian (7), and Bianca (4).
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