Oklahoma State University Livestock Marketing Economist, Darrell Peel.

Santa Teresa, New Mexico is the largest of the ports, and that is, as I understand it, that's the one they're planning to open next.

I think it's going to open relatively slowly as well.

I did see something that indicated they would probably limit it to 700 or 800 head a day, even though at full capacity, that port has the ability to cross more cattle than that, but they won't start there.

It's going to take some time.

Again, there's some new protocols and procedures, and then, of course, they just haven't done it for a while, so they've got to get back into the swing of things a little bit.

Peel says the crossing in Douglas, Arizona, that was opened a few weeks ago, is slowly picking up speed.

Yeah, I think, you know, we're working into it.

calves to cattle on feed, Dr. Darrell Peel, Oklahoma State Livestock Economist.

The monthly cattle on feed report, June placements were down 2.9%.

June marketings were down 2.7%.

And so the on feed inventory came in at 2.2% above July 1 last year.

So the on feed inventory has been up the last three months.

But that can be a little misleading.

It's not up because we have more cattle.

What will the protocol be for inspections and whatnot for these cattle movements?

Yeah, well, I think they're going to use the same protocol that they put in place last summer.

They attempted this phased reopen and it was only open for a few hours or a couple of days or whatever in July a year ago.

So basically, it means that cattle have to be presented at a certified facility away from the border.

just for the screw worm inspections treatment for, I think it's seven days, and then they can be presented to, if everything goes well there, then they can be presented to the border for the usual border crossing protocol.

And obviously all the paperwork has to be in place and the animals are all going to get checked at the border as they always are anyway.

So it's really kind of a double layer of inspection with this seven, it's either seven or 10 days.

What kind of death losses are you hearing?

What is wrong with the fed cattle, the live cattle futures market right now, Daryl? Just a heck of a lot of

pressure on it.

You know, I think there's several things going on in this market with these continuing wide basis that we see.

You know, part of it is just that we've been in a very strong bull market for so long in the US cattle industry.

And obviously, we've been at record prices.

And so, you know, markets get nervous when you're near the top, you know, just on the face of it, you'd say, well, the odds have to be higher for it going down than going up.

And yet, that's not necessarily consistent with the fundamentals that we see today.

What's impressive, really impressive to me, is that the cash market is doing what it's doing and Fort Morgan is still shut down, right?

Dr. Darrell Peel, Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist with Oklahoma State University, says those heavier weights are having an impact.

Obviously, bigger carcasses also produce more trim in general, and so we are producing a lot of those 50% fatty trimmings, if you will, that we need lean beef to mix with.

That's what's driving a lot of the import demand.

At the same time, I would also point out that when we talk about days on feed and the fact that these carcasses are getting bigger, we are getting some additional pounds of meat, but we're getting a lot more external fat on these cattle.

The yield grade four and five percentage right now is at a record level in this country with over 25% of all cattle grading yield grade four and five.

And we're producing a lot of that.

And that's not meat for consumers, but it is a product.

And larger weights do add more stress on the animals.

Darrell Peel is a livestock marketing specialist for Oklahoma State University.

Yeah, I don't think this really changes anything.

Again, you have to read these cattle on feed reports a little carefully and read the flow of cattle through them as opposed to just the stock number we get with that on feed inventory at the first of each month.

So In terms of the flow of

cattle, we are producing less cattle.

Numbers

continue to tighten.

We'll check the markets coming up next on Texas Ag Today.

There's also been a lot of talk this week about New World screw worm.

You know, um, this thing finally got here last, uh, you know, last week, about a week ago.

Um, June 3rd, I think, was the day that we first diagnosed it here in the US.

And so, uh, you know, we've been waiting months for it.

So there's kinda two different reactions.

One is it's here, we've gotta deal with it.

Uh, on the ground it's a, it's a huge management issue for the producers involved, for the industry in that area, as well as for the state, local, and, uh, federal officials that will be working on, on the, uh, containment and, and, uh, eradication of this thing.

Darrell, what are imports and exports looking like right now?

Why is that what really tanks the market every time we get that piece of piece of news?

You know, these animal health issues is certainly one of them.

We've got a lot of things going on right now that are kind of like that, where we get news.

Markets don't like uncertainty, and so that's what we're dealing with here.

It's probably the uncertainty is worse than the reality in many cases, but the market is very reactive to that.

the market is also very resilient.

So when we do see these impacts, whether it's from New World Screw Worm or concerns about infrastructure or geopolitical events, whatever it is, the market tends to react, but then it bounces back pretty quickly.

The longer though we keep this US border closed to live cattle imports, what's at risk? Could we change how cattle flow from Mexico to the US? Could we permanently change that you think?