The long-term trend in the feedlot industry is that cattle are on feed more and more days every year. Feedlot data shows that the 12-month moving average of days on feed has increased approximately 30% just in the last two decades.

Few times in history has the cattle industry offered more opportunity for profit to conscientious producers than right now. That was the primary message of CattleFax CEO Randy Blach’s executive summary at CattleFax’s Industry Outlook Seminar on Feb. 2. 

Maternal traits have been the core consideration for cow-calf producers when making breeding decisions and for good reason. The cow is the engine of productivity at the producer level.

In this podcast episode, Managing Editor David Cooper sits down with Jay Theiler, executive vice president of AgriBeef, and discusses the opening of a new packing plant in Jerome, Idaho, and the supply and demand dynamics that make or break a packing plant. Also, catch a preview of the November issue, and find out what the podcast crew considers must-haves for Thanksgiving dinner.

The number of straws of beef semen sold to the dairy industry has more than doubled in the last five years, although dairy cow numbers have been relatively stagnant. So what has changed?