The University of Kentucky and Alltech have a long and deep collaboration on a range of issues in the areas of human and animal health and nutrition.

Drought conditions in the Southwest are waning, but not over yet, according to a weather official speaking for CattleFax at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association annual convention in Nashville on Feb. 3. Art Douglas, a Creighton University meteorologist and forecaster for CattleFax, told NCBA attendees in the CattleFax Outlook seminar that oceanic conditions indicate the La Niña pattern prevalent over the past two years are wearing off. Warming off waters of South America and Mexico show indications that an El Niño pattern will be developing for 2012. Numerical models from U.S. and Europe, Argentina and Australia are also showing warming trends.

CattleFax export market analyst Brett Stuart told National Cattlemen’s Beef Association trade show producers in Nashville on Feb. 3, that the record $4.7 billion trade for U.S. beef shows “how truly competitive we are in the global marketplace.” Figuring that the 2011 trade amount was actually $6.9 million when including hides, variety meat and offal, the math actually adds $261 per head due to foreign trade, he said. That’s up from $201 per head in 2010, and $149 per head in 2009. The record levels may cause some producers to question the strategy of relying on global buyers, Stuart noted. But when compared to the domestic market, the sale of U.S. beef overseas adds diversity to the marketplace and insulates producers from some volatility.

Having liquidated roughly 1 million beef cows in the past year, the U.S. cattle industry has incentives to rebuild the herd – if Mother Nature cooperates, said CattleFax analyst Kevin Good to producers at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association annual convention. Speaking at the Feb. 3 CattleFax Outlook Seminar in Nashville, Tennessee, Good said calf prices are set to climb another 15 percent in the coming year. “From an economic standpoint, the incentive is going to be there to expand,” Good said.

Changes seen in the beef industry over the past 10 years will only prepare producers for changes that lie ahead, said CattleFax CEO Randy Blach, in his remarks to producers at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention on Feb. 3, in Nashville, Tennessee. Driven largely by export market growth in the past two years, the beef industry has new markets that have balanced shrinking meat consumption in the domestic U.S. “We’ve gone from a net importer to a net exporter in three years,” said Blach in the CattleFax Outlook Seminar. “That’s been a very dynamic piece of the puzzle.”

This article was #12 of the Top 25 most well-read articles on www.progressivedairy.com in 2012. to jump to the article. It was published in the March 10, 2012 Extra. Click here for the full list of the Top 25. Are you on Facebook? Have you tweeted lately? With social media becoming adopted by the agricultural industry, some are using social media as a discussion platform. In an online exclusive article featured in early March, Eric Danzeisen, the creator of #BullChat on Twitter, discusses what this chat consists of and why it was started.