Historically, many of the demand and supply relationships which impact on the cattle industry in the United States and South Dakota have been rather easy to analyze. This is not true today--many of the old, simple relationships have become complex. The purpose of this paper will be to present some of the demand and supply relationships as they pertain to outlook
The commodity futures market is one on which people\u27s views are extremely varied. On the one extreme are beliefs that the futures market is a cure-all; the greatest thing since sliced bread; a tool which the cattle feeder cannot afford to do without. On the other extreme are beliefs that the futures market is the next thing to a Nevada casino; it is the surest way to make a small fortune out of a big one; something which should be avoided like the plague
During the past two or three years, large supplies of feeder cattle, fed beef and non-fed beef dominated the outlook picture, forcing prices to very low levels. The supply side still dominates the picture but, at least from aspects of the industry, the affect is a positive one