Feeder steer prices remain at historic highs across all major regions, averaging 22.9 percent higher year-over- year, and 58 percent higher than the five-year average. Some of the biggest gains have been in the Southern Plains, most affected by the imports of Mexican feeder cattle which are prohibited due to the New World screwworm (NSW).  

Following the ongoing efforts to eradicate NWS and the USDA’s suspension of Mexican cattle (as well as horse and bison imports) on 11 May, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins provided an update last week. The USDA will be investing $21 million to renovate an existing fruit fly production facility in Metapa, Mexico, to produce 60 million-100 million additional sterile NWS flies per we...