The U.S. beef industry is entering a period of historically tight supplies and record-strong demand, with shifts in both the beef cow herd and dairy sectors shaping the next several years.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: El Nino is on its way. If you’ve been dry for the last few years, there’s moisture on its way to you.

Tyler Cozzens, agricultural economist with the Livestock Marketing Information Center, shared an update on the global beef market, and Troy Applehans, a senior market analyst with CattleFax, also discussed the current state of the cattle markets and gave an outlook for 2026 at the 2025 Range Beef Cow Symposium held in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Strong beef demand will likely continue in 2025, helped along by potentially tighter supplies as beef producers rebuild their herds and increased engagement in the cattle markets.

The CattleFax Symposium at NCBA’s 2025 CattleCon revealed a fairly healthy supply of feed and grain in the early winter, all thanks to a record-high yield in 2024.

Through the first half of 2024, it looked like the U.S. might be climbing out of the drought that has plagued big chunks of the country for the last half-decade. The El Nino the ag world had been waiting for was finally here. And then, it wasn’t.

With the cattle herd is at an all-time low, we are all wondering when herd rebuilding will begin and how long this cattle cycle will last. In the past six years, 8 million head of cattle have left the herd. Even with mass liquidation, beef production continues to grow, said Kevin Good, CattleFax analyst, at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) CattleCon 2025 in San Antonio, Texas.

Just days after fires moved across the Texas Panhandle, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) hosted the 2024 Cattle Raisers Convention and Expo on March 22-23 in Fort Worth, Texas.

Despite anticipating record-high calf values, the beef industry will start feeling the pinch of tight fed cattle supplies coming in the next year, Kevin Good, vice president of market analysis at CattleFax, told attendees at the 2024 CattleFax Industry Outlook Seminar, held on Feb. 2.