In this episode, Clay Burtrum, a commercial cow-calf producer in Oklahoma, shares his experience with a two-year virtual fencing project with Oklahoma State University.

Since October 2022, drought conditions have improved for much of the country, to the point where less than 24% of the U.S. is under drought conditions.

There will be producers who have feed resources and believe profits are to be had in 2023 and 2024. The quickest way for these producers to increase the feeder cattle supply is through the addition of bred cows or bred heifers.

Drought and pasture conditions have improved from the previous month, but the situation is still very poor compared to last year and previous years. 

Month after month this year, feedlots have maintained large numbers of cattle on feed relative to history as more calves are being pushed into feedlots at a quicker-than-normal pace due to the drought impact on forage availability.

Aided and abetted by the drought, feedlots put together another month of large placements in July.

Fewer than 80,000 head of feeder cattle were price protected in the year before the 2020 overhaul of the Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) program. This year, on an annualized basis, approximately 4.5 million head of feeder cattle LRP will be purchased.

At the close of the year’s second quarter, beef cattle producers continue to cull a large portion of their breeding herds, as shown in Figure 1 of weekly volumes of federally inspected beef cow slaughter for the previous three years.