Feedlot

Breaking the $250 Barrier: Cattle Markets Charge to New All-Time Highs

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:13:54 GMT

Live cattle futures surpassed the historic $250 mark on Tuesday, driven by record-breaking $250 cash trades in the North and a 75-year low in U.S. cattle inventory . Despite geopolitical tensions and higher fuel costs, robust consumer demand and a lack of Mexican imports continue to push both fed and feeder cattle to all-time highs as the industry enters the peak spring grilling season.

After the correction off of record highs late last year — triggered by President Trump posting he wanted to lower beef prices — some market watchers were unsure the market would retest those levels. However, live cattle futures hit all-time highs on Tuesday, exceeding last October’s record prices, while feeder cattle made new contract highs.

Record Cash Driving Futures

The spot month (April) live cattle futures contract moved above the psychological $250 mark this week, hitting a new high of $253.60 on Tuesday, while June hit a contract high at $252. The futures were pushed by the recovery in the equity markets, but more importantly, they were chasing the fed cash trade. Last week’s 5-area weighted average steer price hit a record $248.38, up $3.42 from the previous week.

Brad Kooima, of Kooima Kooima Varilek, says although it was on light volume, the North led the cash trade with live sales hitting an eye-popping $250 for the first time ever.

“Some of us got $250 in the North to a regional packer. It wasn’t widespread at all. None of the majors ever bid it,” he explains. “The rest of the feedlots were more like $248, and so most everybody passed. Then there was a little bit of trade in Kansas Friday at $249. And then it was kind of unusual, but there was some trade in Texas on Saturday at $248.”

The previous cash record for the 5-area weighted steer was $246.91, scored the week of Feb. 23.

Higher Fed Cash Cattle Trade This Week

Even after these lofty levels, Kooima says he believes fed cash trade could keep climbing this week as tight supplies continue to support the market.

“The feedlot has still maintained leverage. So, I think there’s a shot we’ll be a little bit higher — let’s go $252,” he says. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s a little bit optimistic, but I’ll take my shot that we’re going to be a little bit better, but it won’t happen until late in the week.”

His optimism is based on beef packers buying very few cattle last week and with feedlots holding out for higher money due to tight breakevens.

“I still think we’re in a window of time here of 30 to 45 days where we are cleaning up the old-crop yearlings. You know there’s a few big cattle, but we don’t have the weight problem that we had three to four weeks ago as you’re going into the front end of these calves that aren’t hardly fat. I just don’t think that the feedlot’s going to have any urgency at all to sell as these cattle.”

Futures Continue to Make New Contract Highs

With higher cash trade, Kooima expects the futures to remain resilient, even in the face of the Iran War, higher gas prices and equity market corrections. Additionally, speculative “fund” traders have returned as aggressive buyers.

“There’s an end to that game. However, in the meanwhile, the holding action rally that we’re experiencing, I expect, is going to continue for a little while yet,” he adds.

The 14-Minute Metric: Why Consumers Aren’t Feeling “Sticker Shock”

Supply is only one-half of the equation, as the strength in consumer demand cannot be underestimated as the market enters the peak grilling season.

“It begins with buying for Mother’s Day,” Kooima explains. “So let’s hope that we’ve energized the Choice cutouts, that we see the middles, you know, the steak cuts lead us out of here.”

Kevin Good , vice president with CattleFax, says the rally the last couple of years has been driven by beef demand, which is at a 40-year high. He concludes there is no evidence of sticker shock.

“Even though we’re at a price point where we’re a little concerned we might have some consumer pushback,” he explains. “If we look at how many minutes it takes to buy a pound of beef and at 14 minutes it is back to the level we were at the last cycle peak in 2014 to 2015. So if we put that into perspective, the consumer is saying for that eating experience we’re still a bargain.”

Feeder Frenzy: The Impact of the 1.2 Million Head Border Gap

The feeder cattle futures also reached new contract highs on Tuesday with the May contract topping at $377.57 1/2. That market has also been pushed by the 75-year low in the cattle herd, plus the lack of Mexican feeder cattle imports has further tightened supplies.

The Southern border has been closed for the last year to prevent the introduction of New World screwworm (NWS), resulting in 1.2 million head fewer feeder cattle being placed in southern feedlots. The feeder cattle cash index is reflecting the tight inventory and the red-hot prices at auction barns across the country. The index was up $7.27 on Tuesday at $373.94.

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Understand the $6.50 Surge in Feeder Cattle Futures

Mon, 12 May 2025 20:34:15 GMT

The cattle market hit records numbers on May 12, with August feeder cattle futures reaching highs of $306.85.

Not to be attributed to just one thing, this $6.50 surge is likely due to tandem effects of both the lowering of tariffs with China, as well as the USDA’s decision to close the southern border again because of concerns with New World Screwworm.

“Markets are way up today if you looked at the futures, but it’s hard to sort out how much of that is due to Mexico,” says Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist. “Probably the bigger part of it is the stock market and all the tariff related stuff that’s going on.”

What’s ‘Normal’ For Animal Imports v. Today?
So far in 2025, a total of 197,844 head of feeder cattle have been imported since the border reopened, down 60% year over year for the year-to-date. In 2024, a total of 1.25 million head of feeder cattle were imported, with none in the last five weeks of the year, says Peel in his weekly market report.

“On an annual basis, the number of feeder cattle we bring in from Mexico is equivalent to 3.5% of our calf crop ,” Peel adds. “It’s not insignificant, but it’s not a huge, huge factor either.”

Peel says reducing the supply of cattle coming in has fairly big effects on cattle businesses who rely specifically on that source of cattle, much of which would be in the Southern Plains region.

“Folks who historically utilize those cattle, obviously are directly impacted, and they have to try to find other sources of cattle, but, again, the overall numbers are not big enough to be a major market mover,” he says.

Additionally, Peel says the majority of cattle coming into the U.S. from Mexico were spayed heifers due to drought liquidation.

John Hepton, Wilder Cattle Feeders in Idaho, says he has fed Mexican cattle in the past, but doesn’t have any in yards currently, so it’s not a supply issue for him, but he pays close attention to the futures.

“Feedlots aren’t getting those cattle from Mexico and they’re pulling feeder cattle farther away,” Hepton says. “It’s definitely having an impact on the price of feeders and the availability of feeders, which is going to have an impact on the amount of cattle that are placed on feed that end up at the processors. We’re already short as is.”

As a feedlot owner, risk management has always been a part of his business model, which helps as the markets climb.

“It looked like we were kind of hitting close to a high when the feeder futures got to three bucks,” he says. “We added some hedges and risk protection at that level then you wake up Monday morning and the market’s up four bucks, and you’re making margin calls because of an outside influence in the market. It’s just the way it is.”

Markets Shape Herd Size Dynamics
Hepton says he has heard from people in the industry that herd expansion is starting in places, but he’s not sure to what degree, which would put less heifers on feed.

“If you’re a cow-calf producer, it helps you price wise,” Hepton says. “We were already the highest prices in the history of the world and now it’s higher again. Producers will continue to get more for their calf crop coming up. Whether that changes their decision to save more heifers or not has always been more about forage availability than anything.”

He says time will tell if producers keep saving heifers as they will be giving up a big check.

“I think that’s part of the reason why there hasn’t been a lot of expansion yet; they are worth so much that it’s hard to hard to not sell them.”

Hepton points out other factors work together to determine what the industry does. He says there will be signals to continue to produce cattle.

“If we don’t get in a drought, the cow herd will eventually increase,” he says. “Also, if you get to a price point where demand backs off, first it’ll back off on the meat sales, then the fed cattle price, then feeder cattle price, and finally at the cow-calf level. In time, capitalism always works. If people can’t afford beef, that’s going to be the real driver of a change in this market, I think.”

Border Closure Aims to Limit Exposure To Pest
While the change in markets has gained industry attention, Peels says the USDA decision to close the southern border is very much a veterinary issue to make sure the New World Screwworm stays out of the U.S.

“The pest moves with cattle, potentially, if they have it,” he says. “And of course, flies can just move, and they’re going to move in conjunction with cattle. Stopping the movement of the cattle is the first step in containing it. Then you use the sterile fly program to eradicate it and start hopefully pushing it back farther south.”

Your next read: U.S. Suspends Mexican Cattle, Horse and Bison Imports Over Screwworm Pest

Nebraska's New Feedlot Innovation Center: Leading the Charge in Research Revolution

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 13:42:26 GMT

Walk into University of Nebraska’s new Feedlot Innovation Center, and you’ll realize it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen. While the buildings may be empty lots today, starting next week, cattle will start to arrive, setting the stage to revolutionize feedlot research for the entire industry.

“We thought this is the latest and greatest way for us to help the feedlot industry help the beef industry focus on performance, environmental issues and challenges that we can address, as well as animal welfare, cattle behavior and even precision technology,” says Galen Erickson, Nebraska cattle industry professor of animal science at University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL).

A New Approach to Feedlot Research

It’s all being done at the Klosterman Feedlot Innovation Center, a $7.2-million project that sprouted from an idea four years ago.

“We want to be a testbed for all of the latest innovations,” says Erickson. “Not only is it innovations that we would like to develop internally, but we also want to be a testbed for companies. So if there’s industry innovations that companies are developing, many of them need to be tested in the real world. And yet, when you test them in the real world, you want to be able to collect all the data and information on how well they work. That’s the role that we think we serve.”

Advancing Precision Technology in Beef Production

Erickson, who also serves as the feedlot Extension specialist for UNL, spoke to us from the Klopfenstein Feed Technology Center, one of four buildings that now call the Feedlot Innovation Center home.

“This is a 240-head individual feeding facility. It’s a facility we’re using for individual animal management research,” says Erickson “There’s a lot of interest in what can we do with precision technology to improve beef cattle production. We have a lot of research planned for this facility in the coming years.”

The Terry Klopfenstein Feed Technology Center has 36 commercial-sized pens, which will house 60 head of cattle across four different housing systems.

“The goal is to do individual management, individual precision technology, look at sensors we can use on cattle, as well as ways to enhance welfare, health or performance,” he adds.

Erickson says from small-scale research to larger pens, the research will be precise, but it will also uncover answers on a larger scale.

“Sometimes people say, ‘Well, that research was done on a smaller scale. That doesn’t apply to our operation.’ So, we’re really excited because we can do things now that are directly applicable. And frankly, some of the questions we’re asking need to be done on a larger scale and with larger groups of cattle,” Erickson says.

Nailing Down Answers About Nutrient Loss

One of the key answers Erickson says they’ll uncover here is ways to reduce nutrient loss from feedyard systems.

“We need to do a better job of conserving nutrients. The focus of that and on everybody’s mind is normally carbon and greenhouse gases,” he says. “Actually, much of our focus here will be that and also nitrogen management. Housing systems offers one of the greatest ways to change that.”

Erickson says a traditional open lot, which is the most common feedyard housing system today, isn’t particularly good at conserving nitrogen. He says placing cattle in deep pit barns is a good way to conserve nitrogen, while also revealing other essential answers.

“If you put cattle in these barns, you get to control the elements. So in the summertime there’s less heat stress, and in winter time we have less cold stress. But they’re also crowded in there pretty good. So, we’re looking at how do the cattle perform and behave in those systems, and how we can manage nutrients in those systems compared to traditional open lots,” says Erickson.

From cattle performance in the heat or the cold, to researching how to keep cattle out of the mud, Erickson says the research that will be done at the University of Nebraska will happen year-round.

“A lot of producers have been asking if we can put cattle on concrete, and traditional concrete is very expensive. But there’s a new approach for solid surface pens called roller-compacted concrete. From a research facility perspective, I believe we will be the first place in the world to be able to compare commercial performance in that type of setting,” he says.

Answering a Burning Question about Cattle Emissions

While the research will find answers for feedlots in the U.S., other studies ongoing here at the University of Nebraska are finding answers that could be valuable worldwide.

“There’s a lot of global concern about how much cattle are actually contributing to global warming. We’re trying to answer that question and get involved with actually quantifying those emissions, because there’s not a lot of research out there that actually tells us what the cattle are emitting. It’s a lot of predictions or estimates at this point,” says Rebecca McDermott, a PhD student in beef cattle nutrition at UNL.

Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions of cattle grazing pasture is the topic of her research, but her classroom is far from a traditional setting. Instead, her classroom is a 27-acre brome grass pasture where you’ll find cattle grazing with GPS collars.

“We have an eddy covariance system that actually measures methane and the CO2 that’s produced by the pasture and the cattle. Then, we can use the location of the cattle, and if they are in this footprint, we can actually determine what those cattle are emitting. So then, we can determine what their actual methane and CO2 emissions are,” she says.

The research is five years in the works, and McDermot says they’re already finding impactful insights, including what impact the weather is having on cattle emissions.

“When there’s drought, there’s less biomass or less forage on the field. So that pasture is actually taking up less carbon. Then, the cattle are carbon positive, meaning that they’re contributing carbon to the environment. Whereas, in years where there’s lots of rainfall, lots of forage, lots of biomass, then the pasture is actually taking up more carbon than what the cattle are emitting. So then that system would be actually carbon neutral,” she explains.

A Vision for the Future

From tracking cattle in the pasture, to now being able to track cattle’s feed consumption with individual ID tags in this feeding system, the UNL research could shape the cattle industry in the years ahead.

“When that tag is scanned by the reader, we can decide whether the animal has access to a specific bunk. We’ll also have different diets in these bunks that we can compare,” says Erickson. “So, once that animal’s ID is read, we can allow it to either have access to feed or not, and we can also control for how long.”

Between the Feedlot Technology Center, the two confinement barns in the middle and the processing facility on the end, this state-of-the art feedlot innovation center is truly one of a kind.

“Maybe most importantly, when we do experiments, we get to randomize cattle to different outcome groups. I always joke cattle to cattle can’t lie. So when we do our randomization correctly, however the cattle perform in these two different systems that’s what the two systems tell us, because the cattle can’t fool you,” says Erickson.

Bottom line, Erickson says the work researchers are doing at the new Feedlot Innovation Center will help cattle producers across the country, as the research has real-world application and impacts what producers can adopt tomorrow.