“Just a second. Just be patient,” is a phrase I find myself often repeating to my 2-year-old, and might I add very determined daughter.

Since January, slaughter data has indicated a 12% decline in beef cow slaughter. This is likely a combination of improving pasture conditions, sufficient reductions in animal units per acre on poorer pastures and the prospect of improved profitability from selling calves.

Beef exports in May, while trending below last year’s record levels, have, in many international markets, reached the highest levels so far in 2023, according to data from the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

With generally improving pastures and lower expected feed costs this year, the demand for feeder calves is well supported.

In this episode, Clay Burtrum, a commercial cow-calf producer in Oklahoma, shares his experience with a two-year virtual fencing project with Oklahoma State University.

The forecast for first-quarter beef production is lowered 25 million pounds, based on USDA Agricultural Marketing Service reports of federally inspected livestock slaughter, showing a slower pace of fed cattle slaughter and lower aggregate carcass weights than expected last month.

In the gripping finale of our 2023 NCBA coverage, Bridgette Readel of Rural Minds discusses mental health resources in rural America; the University of Tennessee’s Troy Rowan gives producers advice on developing a bull-buying game plan; and Dave Weaber from Terrain talks through ways the industry can rebuild the national cow herd after drought.

Progressive Cattle editors sit down with guests at the 2023 NCBA Cattle Industry Convention in New Orleans.