Aug 27, 2026 · 20 min · 13 segments
The U.S. cattle industry can handle a lot, but the New World screwworm situation has forced hard, practical decisions across the supply chain, especially in Texas feedyard country. Our Clint Peck sits…
Clint Peck
Sarah MuirheadHost
So before we get into some of the specific challenges and opportunities, uh, in the cattle feeding business in your neck of the woods, can you give us a little bit of a, like a 30,000-foot view of what cattle feeding's looking like in, uh, in, in TCFA country and, uh, uh, sort of, uh, where, where you see it from that vantage point?
Well, I mean, a- as you know, like, uh, you know, the cattle feeding business, it's like most margin-driven businesses.
We've gotten to experience high record fat cattle prices this year, uh, which is absolutely the up.
Uh, the, the flip side of that is that it comes with record level replacement costs.
And, you know, with, with these high prices, you've got things like, I mean, tripled capital requirements that are needed, you know, during these times.
And so with, with all of that, just it, it, it comes with a pretty high level of risk.
And you, you start dealing with this higher level of risk, then, then, you know, it lessens, at times it'll lessen your appetite to, to be able to own enough cattle to, to keep your, to keep your feed yards to maintain capacity.
And, you know, that's, that's kind of the, the 30,000-foot view of, of the feed yard and the management part of it.
Um, that's gonna lean its way towards, you know, not having, you know, shortened up our summer grazing, uh, not having a lot of carryover grass for the cows.
And our, you know, we, we, we have forage needs in our silage and, and, and hay.
Uh, a lot of these crops, the yields won't be near as big, and also along with the, with the area corn crops.
So before we get into some of the specific challenges and opportunities, uh, in the cattle feeding business in your neck of the woods, can you give us a little bit of a, like a 30,000-foot view of what cattle feeding's looking like in, uh, in, in TCFA country and, uh, uh, sort of, uh, where, where you see it from that vantage point?
Well, I mean, a- as you know, like, uh, you know, the cattle feeding business, it's like most margin-driven businesses.
We've gotten to experience high record fat cattle prices this year, uh, which is absolutely the up.
Uh, the, the flip side of that is that it comes with record level replacement costs.
And, you know, with, with these high prices, you've got things like, I mean, tripled capital requirements that are needed, you know, during these times.
And so with, with all of that, just it, it, it comes with a pretty high level of risk.
And you, you start dealing with this higher level of risk, then, then, you know, it lessens, at times it'll lessen your appetite to, to be able to own enough cattle to, to keep your, to keep your feed yards to maintain capacity.
And, you know, that's, that's kind of the, the 30,000-foot view of, of the feed yard and the management part of it.
Um, that's gonna lean its way towards, you know, not having, you know, shortened up our summer grazing, uh, not having a lot of carryover grass for the cows.
And our, you know, we, we, we have forage needs in our silage and, and, and hay.
Uh, a lot of these crops, the yields won't be near as big, and also along with the, with the area corn crops.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
