Producers can expect a wealth of education opportunities and a chance to sample the best the industry has to offer in new and tried-and-true beef technology at the 2024 National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show in Orlando, Florida.

Over the past two to three years, the heart of cattle country experienced extreme drought conditions. Many producers have faced difficult decisions concerning their cow herd health and maintenance on top of the financial pressure of managing through a difficult weather event.

The Beef Improvement Federation recognized 44 Farms of Cameron, Texas, as the BIF Seedstock Producer of the Year during the organization’s annual research symposium in July in Calgary, Alberta. Douglas Lake Cattle Company of Douglas Lake, British Columbia, was presented with the Commercial Producer of the Year Award.

The usual suspects (expected progeny differences [EPDs], genomic testing, heterosis) were covered, as were some issues (beef-on-dairy, methane emissions, cardiac health) that may have been a bit more of a surprise to the uninitiated at an event ostensibly dedicated to beef cattle genetics.

There’s a new tick in town, and it’s made its way to 17 different states – ranging from the South all the way up through the East Coast.

CattleFax Vice President of Research and Risk Management Services Mike Murphy’s message about feed prices and availability for the coming year was cautiously optimistic. Even as the end appears to be in sight for countless farmers and ranchers who have dealt with historic drought conditions across the country the past couple years, the economic effects of that drought remain.

Over the next few years as the cattle herd builds back, cull cow prices and all beef prices will rise as the U.S. cycles into tighter supplies, giving more market leverage to the producer.

Profitability for cattle producers – especially the cow-calf operator – is expected to improve to levels the industry hasn’t seen since 2013-15, according to CattleFax CEO Randy Blach.

The three-year lament appears to be ending as readings in the Pacific Ocean portend warming waters in 2023. El Nino weather patterns, when warming Pacific waters create moisture in much of the West and Midwest states, have been missing since 2019. La Nina, the uglier twin sibling of El Nino, where colder ocean temperatures lead to warmer and less water, has hung around since then worsened the Western drought.