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Global demand remains a key to livestock profitability
Input costs for livestock producers are projected to rise this year and an ag economist says strong global demand for US proteins will be key to profitability.
Michael Swanson with Wells Fargo tells Brownfield especially with the amount of beef, pork, and dairy produced in the US. “We need that demand,” he says. “We have too much domestic production in the sense we can’t consume it all. But that foreign trade does make us vulnerable to a lot of trade disputes and that’s an open question going forward.”
He says China will be a wild card again this year. “China could take a lot more protein,” he says. “They could take it at much higher prices. But, they’ve told us – and acted in a way they want to produce it first for themselves. And they’ll turn to us and others to fill in where they want.
The USDA’s projected higher crop prices could cause livestock producers around $2 billion in 2021.
AUDIO: Michael Swanson, Wells Fargo
