Current Cattle Markets Daily Headlines January 18, 2021

americancattlemarkets

5 years ago

America’s biggest owner of farmland is now Bill Gates

The fourth richest individual in the world, Bill Gates, is also the top private farmland owner in America owning 242,000 acres of farmland across the nation.
- According to Forbes, Gates’ net worth is almost $121 billion.
Gates has land spanning across 18 states with his largest holdings in Louisiana (69,071 acres), Arkansas (47,927 acres) and Nebraska (20,588 acres).
In addition to this farmland, Gates also has a stake in 25,750 acres of transitional land on the west side of Phoenix, AZ, which is currently being developed as a new suburb.
Gates’ involvement in agriculture goes beyond purchasing farmland. In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced $306 million in grants to promote high-yield, sustainable agriculture among smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
- Since then, the foundation has invested in the development and proliferation of “super crops” resistant to climate change and higher yielding dairy cows.

Bred cows averaged $54/hd. higher in 2020 compared to 2019. Bred heifers were $22/hd. higher and pairs were $38/hd. higher year-over-year.
- This comes as a surprise to many considering the volatility in the cattle market throughout 2020 and the relatively stale calf prices over the past few years.
There is clearly some optimism from cow-calf producers for better calf prices in the coming years, the main reason being tighter supplies.
In 2020, the beef cowherd declined 375,000 hd., and it is expected to decline another 300,000 hd. in 2021, as of January 1 inventories.
- The resulting smaller calf crops should equate to higher prices and better demand.
Many producers are running at maximum inventory levels, but drought and higher feed costs are proving to be a challenge. As of today, it looks as if Mother Nature is going to stand in the way of producers being able to maximize numbers during a time when prices are expected to move higher.

Slaughter cow prices in the month of December averaged $55.36/cwt., compared to $57.94/cwt. in November. Last year in December, slaughter cows were averaging $56.29/cwt.
Beef cow slaughter in 2020 was up 2.5 percent at 3.27 million head. Dairy cow slaughter totaled 3.06 million head, down 4 percent from 2019.
A seasonal rally for slaughter cows is expected to develop over the next few months due to tighter supplies and stronger 90 lean trim values.
- Slaughter cow prices are expected to reach a high near $70/cwt. by late winter or early spring, the majority of the rally will come by the end of February.

Historically, an animal’s drop credit (non-meat by-products of beef production) has made up 8-10 percent of the animal’s value.
- The hide has made up the majority of this share receiving 6-8 percent of the total value of the animal.
Between 1989 and 2011, hides averaged 58.3 percent of the total value of cattle by-products for a steer weighing approximately 1,000 lbs.
- In 2000, this reached a high of 67 percent.
- In 2015, the hide value dropped to 48 percent of total by-product value.
- When 2019 came around, hides only made up 37 percent of the total drop credit.
- Today, hides only make up 15-20 percent of the total by-product value of the animal, down almost 50 percent from a few years ago.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has launched MBA NextGen, a series of updated advocacy training modules for the Masters of Beef Advocacy (MBA) program.
MBA NextGen will make it easier for a new generation of farmers and ranchers to share their story and advocate intelligently for the beef industry.
These new training modules will be a free, self-guided online course that will provide tools and resources for anyone to become a beef advocate.