Page 3 - MWC 8-11-2022s

The Midwest Cattleman · August 11, 2022 · P3

August 11, 2022 Volume 28 No. 6

AMERICAN FOODS GROUP TO BREAK DROUGHT WEIGHING ON SUMMER
GROUND ON NEW MISSOURI BEEF PLANT CATTLE MARKETS
By Greg Henderson By Derrell Peel - Oklahoma State University
American Foods Group, posed $450 million plant will Drought advanced rapidly Drought Monitor map showed
LLC (AFG) announced re- have a daily harvest capacity across Oklahoma in July. At that 100 percent of the state
cently that it has secured of 2,400 head the end of June, the Drought was dry with 99.81 percent in
final backing and will break “The state of Missouri and Monitor showed that 30.76 some stage of drought. In fact,
ground this month on its the people of Warren County percent of the state was in 92.11 percent of the state was
new, state-of-the-art beef have been outstanding part- some stage of drought (D1- Severe drought (D2) or worse.
harvest plant in Warren ners, and we look forward to D4) with another 15.15 per- The northern one-third
County, Missouri. The pro- becoming a member of their cent abnormally dry (D0). of Oklahoma received good
community,” Steve Four weeks later, the July 26 rains of up to three inches in
Van Lannen, Pres- the last week. This
ident and COO of will briefly push
American Foods back drought con-
Groups said in a ditions in that
statement. “Con- region, but triple
sumer demand for digit tempera-
beef is growing, tures are fore-
and we are invest- cast to return in
ing in this project August and little
to fill an indus- follow-up rain is
continued on page 10
American Foods Group proposed beef plant. (AFG) continued on page 10

MID-YEAR CATTLE REPORT CONTINUES TO JULY REPORT SHOWS DECLINING
SHOW DECREASING CATTLE INVENTORY CATTLE INVENTORIES
By Dr. Kenny Burdine, Extension Professor, By James Mitchell, Livestock Marketing Specialist, University of Arkansas
Livestock Marketing, University of Kentucky USDA recently published bers. The full report is avail-
In late July, USDA-NASS but high production costs and the July Cattle Inventory, able on the USDA-NASS
released their mid-year es- strong cull cow prices have which showed lower year- website.
timates of US cattle inven- also been factors. over-year inventories for Total cattle inventories
tory. As expected, the report Heifer retention estimates most reported categories. continued on page 12
showed lower inventory across also paint a picture of a cow- While inven-
most all cattle types. All cat- herd that is shrinking in size. tories posted
tle and calves were estimat- I always like to review the a year-over-
ed to be down by just under heifer development number, year decline,
2%, while beef cow inventory which was estimated to be NASS esti-
was estimated down by 2.4%. down by roughly 3.5%. Figure mates were
This is very consistent with 1 expresses this number as a higher than
beef cow slaughter volumes, percent of beef cow inventory pre-report
which have been running each year, which is actually expectations,
14% higher than 2021. In my preferred way to think with ana-
nominal terms, 252 thousand continued on page 10 lysts expect-
more beef ing larger
cows have decreases in
been harvest- cattle num-
ed through
the first week
of July this Coming Sales-30
year than last
year. Much of Life is Simple-5
this has been Market Report-8
due to dry Agribusiness
conditions in Directory-28
significant
parts of cat-
tle country,