Arkansas Agriculture
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Livestock Market News - Situation and Outlook
Week Ending November 6, 2009
According to John D. Anderson, Ph.D., Extension Professor, and
John Michael Riley, Ph.D., Assistant Extension Professor, Department
of Agricultural Economics, Mississippi State University: The
Southern US has been inundated with rain over the past two months.
The Mississippi River corridor has been particularly hard hit by the
excessive rains. In parts of the Mid-South and Southeast,
accumulated rainfall over the past 60 days has been as much as four
or five times the normal amount.
For row crop producers, this year’s rainfall event has been
devastating, seriously degrading both the quantity and quality of
crops remaining in the field. Soybeans and cotton have probably
suffered the greatest losses due to the fact that October is
generally the principal harvest season for these crops. The effects
of this year’s historic rainfall on Southern cattle producers are
more subtle than for crop producers.
In some respects, the weather has been beneficial. Hay production
earlier in the year was very good, and most states in the South will
produce more hay in 2009 than in 2008, though getting late hay up in
good condition has obviously been very difficult. In addition, most
producers have enjoyed abundant fall pasture this year, with less
than 15% of the pasture in most Southern states rated as Poor or
Very Poor in the latest Crop Progress report. The quality of
pastures in the South has probably not been as good as its outward
appearance. Anecdotal reports in the Mid-South suggest that some
producers have had to supplement fall pasture with hay due to the
very low dry matter content of the grass this fall. This is common
in the spring but rather unusual for fall pasture.
The problems faced by the region’s row crop producers should
create some opportunities for Southern cattlemen. Commodity feeds
will be widely available in many areas, as grain that is too damaged
for delivery to elevators is sold as livestock feed for salvage
prices. This will be the fate of large quantities of soybeans in the
Mid-South. Cattlemen will need to brush up on some basic management
points before taking advantage of this feedstuff, including
acceptable inclusion rates and any feeding restrictions related to
pesticide (especially fungicide) applications.
There is a downside to this year’s wet weather for cattle
producers. Conditions for working cattle have been generally
abysmal. For producers backgrounding calves, the weather has not
been particularly conducive to getting calves straightened out and
on feed. Probably most significantly, stocker cattle producers who
graze cattle on winter annuals have had considerable difficulty in
getting those crops established.
USDA Crop Progress reports indicate that small grain planting is
well behind normal in much of the region. This fall’s weather has,
at best, significantly shortened the winter annual grazing season
for many producers in the South.
Federal-State Market News, P.O. Box 391,
Little Rock, AR 72203, (501) 671-2200
Prepared by Steven R. Cheney, USDA Officer-in-Charge
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