I’m sure you all up North have noticed the Great Counter-Intuincy we have down here in the States. Don’t look the term up. I just invented it. But whatever common sense would intuitively indicate, our presidential administration makes the counter move. If natural gas and propane and fertilizer prices are way too high, consider shutting […] Read more
NCBA musters packer procurement data into framework
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
U.S. proposes marketing “fixes”
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
Several factors may improve the beef business in Canada soon. As we’ve noted, China has been aggressive in driving the global beef market. The delivery of Meng Wanzhou back to China and the release of the Canadians should ease that cloud over relations. The U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel were dropped at the recent […] Read more
Dittmer: Experts analyze American fed cattle marketing
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
Texas A&M University’s Agricultural and Food Policy Center co-ordinated and has published a 201-page study authored by 17 agricultural economists and market analysts from 10 different universities, plus support from the USDA chief economist. Entitled U.S. Beef Supply Chain: Issues and Challenges, the study was commissioned in August of 2020 by the U.S. House Agriculture […] Read more
Taxes, trade and tortured “logic”
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
Regarding the export market, Japan has a new prime minister but nothing has indicated that will appreciably affect their economy. China is reining in tech firms, the property market and other industries. We hope that doesn’t have major impacts on their demand for fed beef but it needs monitoring, given their importance in global beef […] Read more
China reshapes global beef markets
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
World events have made it increasingly difficult to figure out where the bubble in the level really is. We saw hundreds of Canadians on television protesting the detention of two Canadian citizens by the Chinese Communist Party for 1,000 days. The allegations are supposedly unrelated to political events everyone knows they are connected to. Yet […] Read more
Disappearing bacon — what’s next?
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
Reality can bite for voters ruled by emotion rather than informed decision-making. But this time, it could take away something to bite into. Restauranteurs in California are getting very concerned that a meat staple of many dishes, especially in breakfast-centred restaurants, is going to be gutted from their menus in January. Beginning then, much of […] Read more
Dittmer: Senate hearing elicits critical facts and logic
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
A Senate hearing on your industry is always dangerous. It’s especially dangerous now for the U.S. cattle industry. Two Senate bills would mandate that each major packing plant procure 50 per cent of its cattle weekly by negotiated cash. The furor in the industry about such a drastic move, the remembered pandemic spectre of empty […] Read more
Dittmer: U.S. beef business and politics
Economics and politics in the States this spring has boiled down to bottlenecks, tax and spending bills and meat processing struggles. Most of the grocery stores seem to be maintaining meat supplies, even as packers struggle to get close to rated capacity harvest. With currentness slipping in feedyards, the last thing the industry needed was a major plant […] Read more
Negotiated cash report, packer struggles
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) reported on the first quarter of monitoring the share of U.S. cattle bought through negotiated cash vs. other procurement methods. Not too surprisingly, there was good news and bad news, for those favouring more negotiated cash sales. The regions that customarily sell more finished cattle through negotiated cash sales […] Read more
Are we headed for government-run packers?
Free Market Reflections with Steve Dittmer
You folks up north might remember when President Obama and the labour unions took over General Motors. People started referring to GM as Government Motors. Well, we’ve got folks who want to turn our packers into quasi-government packing companies. After all, if the government is going to tell packers how to buy cattle, how many […] Read more
Canadian Cattlemen Presents: Depth of Field
