What dairy breakeven looks like with and without the beef-on-dairy boom To put a dollar value on that question, this analysis removes the calf check from the USDA ledger and examines how many of the last five years would have reached breakeven without it. Key Takeaways:
Milk and other income alone have not covered full economic cost in any year since 2021, with shortfalls of 65 cents to $5.77 per hundredweight. Cattle income decided 2024 and 2025: it produced surpluses of $1.29 and 63 cents, while 2021 and 2023 still lost $2.89 and $4.23. The cushion is thin: at its 2023 level, cattle income would turn the 2025 surplus into a loss of about 8 cents. Beef semen volume has plateaued at 9.84 million units, so further gains must come from calf...
The Senate Agriculture Committee will undergo significant changes in the new Congress beginning in January 2027, including several major shifts in meat-producing states. The Democratic Party’s tsunami swept Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) out of office, and out of the seat once held by...
The US election is over, but the market’s debate is just beginning. A shift in Washington’s balance of power is changing policy expectations, while developments involving Iran and an early decline in the dollar are adding to the uncertainty. Now traders must decide how much of that...
