Storms in the Texas Panhandle, the nation's largest cattle-feeding region, will worsen conditions in feedlots, analysts said. Feedlots from Texas to Nebraska are already in bad shape from a series of storms that struck earlier this year.
Cattle gain weight more slowly in the cold and mud because they use more energy just staying warm.
Colo. Cattle for April delivery rose 0.55 cents, or 0.7 percent, to 81.375 cents a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, their highest closing price since March 1993. Prices are about 14 percent higher than a year ago. Mass. While fewer cattle are reaching market weight because of the adverse weather, feedlots are holding a record number of animals. The total feedlot herd was 10.222 million head on Feb. 1, up 3.4 percent from 9.885 million head on the same date a year earlier, the government said earlier this month. Cattle began showing the effects of the poor feeding conditions earlier this month, analysts said.