The 2022 hay crop has been made. Those marketing and moving it face plenty of challenges.

The most striking factors driving hay markets are related to alfalfa exports, domestic prices for dairy-quality hay and an early start to the supplemental feeding season in drought areas.

Both feedlot inventories and cattle slaughter have remained stubbornly high this year due to drought-forced movement of cattle out of the country. Feedlot production, cattle slaughter and beef production are all expected to decrease sharply in 2023.

The year kicked off with a cattle inventory estimated to be down 2%, thanks to a 2021 calf crop down 2.3% from the previous year, due largely to the pressures brought on by drought and high input costs for feed, fuel, fertilizer and labor. This Market Intel provides farmers and ranchers with a snapshot of what is happening to the U.S. cattle herd as we head toward the finish line of 2022.

In a webinar hosted by NCBA, James Mitchell, assistant professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness and extension livestock economist at the University of Arkansas, discussed how producers can use Pasture, Rangeland and Forage (PRF) Insurance as a risk management strategy for their operation.

Aided and abetted by the drought, feedlots put together another month of large placements in July.