Has cow-calf profitability tracked record-high cattle prices?
- ZISK
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Record-high cattle prices in 2025 haven’t guaranteed universal cow-calf profitability. Success depends on purchase price, productivity, costs, cull value and discount rate. Low-cost, high-productivity managers benefit most. Outlook remains cautiously optimistic.
Through mid-October 2025, excitement built across the live sectors of the beef industry, with high-price records sometimes being reset daily for many classes of cattle. Though drought conditions persisted through the Great Plains and much of the West, the fundamentals supported rising prices.
Consumer demand was steady. Fed cattle inventory was holding its own due to increased days on feed. Feeder cattle supply was ever-tightening, accelerated by the suspension of feeder cattle imports from Mexico. Enthusiasm fueled investment, and both live and feeder cattle futures were paralleling the upward trajectory of prices. All this excitement suggested “down” days for the live segments of the beef industry were in the distant future.
Rick Machen
January 16, 2026
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