Anne Dunford speaking at Manitoba Ag Days.

 

 

Cattle futures in Chicago were traded at new historical highs last week.

Anne Dunford of Gateway Livestock was one of the speakers at Manitoba Ag Days. She talked about some of the factors moving the market higher.

"You've got lots of outside factors, lots of outside money driving these futures markets, not just cattle. We have oil up, we have corn up, all the grains are up," she points out. "It's a commodity driven market. Can I take it back and make sense of supply and demand? Not really."

Cattle prices have not followed their normal seasonal trend over the last year.

"When have we ever placed calf highs for the entire year in December? That's what happened in 2010 and that's why I suggest we have to be careful about using historic supply/demand seasonalities to make predictions from," she says.

She says the lower price of feed in western Canada has led to a tighter cattle basis.

"It keeps our cost of gain lower than the U.S. cost of gain. That means the cattle stay here and become more valuable at a lower cost of gain," she says.

~ Monday, January 24, 2011 ~