Happy Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

Out of these three meat choices given, which do you consume the most of during the week?

• Beef
• Chicken
• Pork

During the week,I consume a balance between beef and chicken. 

Today's awareness is looking at market prices( a little economics). Market prices are important for farmers and consumers. In order for the farmers operation to be successful he has to make money on whatever he is producing. Today, we are looking at the futures market for meat, specifically beef (cattle), and pork (hogs). Consumers also need to watch the market because they reflect prices in store. 

A little economics lesson as promised.. 
Prices fluctuate constantly depending on..

•  supply and demand
• global demand
• competition with other crops, or like cattle's competition is pork and chicken.
• weather (if conditions are wet, and crop is lost, or destroyed in a lot of areas, it could play a big factor in the market). The demand for that crop would increase, the supply would be a shortage do to loss of crop and prices should reflect the demand and be higher.
• Diseases in crop, or livestock. Example like Coccidiosis (which is a parasite disease that attacks the intestinal tract) or like diplodia ear rot which is a fungus in corn. 
• farmland, with our growing population, farm land continues to be taken away (thankfully for technology we are able to produce more and able to adapt with less acres while still maintaining efficient and even higher yields. 

So many more factors but just going over a couple..
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Let's talk a little about pork (hogs) and beef (cattle) futures market. 

For cattle in the futures market has two sections
Feeder Cattle- weaned but not fully grown yet, around 600 + pounds
Live Cattle- fully grown cattle normally 1,200 + pounds, 

For pork the futures market only has one section
Lean Hogs-normally weigh 200-25+ pounds

When selling in the livestock market, each price is qouted per pound 

Today Prices for Futures Market of April 2020 (I rounded)
 Feeder Cattle-$1.48/lb
Live Cattle- $1.27/lb
Lean Hogs-$0.76/lb

Keep a watch on the market to see how much those numbers change close to April! I encourage you this shows you what farmers watch, when locking in their futures prices for grain or livestock. Lots of focus on the market. The market plays a huge role in their operation. 

Hope you guys have a great Tuesday and hopefully you learned something!