@article{Griffith:303908,
      recid = {303908},
      author = {Griffith, Andrew P. and Martinez, Charles},
      title = {Tennessee Feeder Cattle Prices Influenced by COVID-19},
      address = {2020-07-17},
      number = {2325-2020-596},
      series = {W 914},
      pages = {5},
      month = {Jul},
      year = {2020},
      abstract = {Feeder cattle prices are driven by supply and demand for  live cattle (i.e., finished cattle) that are in turn driven  by supply and demand for beef. Supply and demand in the  cattle and beef industries change seasonally, resulting in  seasonal price changes for feeder cattle, finished cattle  and beef. For example, on the cattle side, many cow-calf  producers calve in late winter and early spring months  (February and March) and market cattle in the fall (October  and November). The increased supply of lower-weighted  calves (i.e., less than 600 pounds) induces lower prices in  the fall, whereas in the spring (March or April), there is  a lower supply of animals under 600 pounds that typically  sell at higher prices. Additionally, the timing of calving  greatly influences when an animal will enter the feedlot  and thereby when it will be harvested. From a beef demand  perspective, the greatest demand for beef generally occurs  during the summer grilling months, and the softest demand  occurs during the winter months. Thus, these factors also  seasonally influence feeder cattle prices. Outside of  supply and demand for beef, feeder cattle prices are  regularly influenced by changes in feed prices, as feed  costs are a large component of feedlot production costs.  However, there are occasions when other external  (exogenous) shocks influence feeder cattle prices, such as  bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in 2003, drought in  2011 and 2012, and the Tyson beef packing facility fire in  2019. Each of these external shocks affected the typical  supply and demand of finished cattle, which also  transmitted to feeder cattle prices. Though these shocks  were exogenous to the market, they were primarily isolated  to the cattle industry or agricultural production  industries; that is, they did not involve the broader  United States population.   Coronavirus (COVID-19) is  another external shock influencing cattle prices in early  2020. The difference between COVID-19 and the external  shocks discussed above is that coronavirus influenced most  national and international markets, not just beef cattle.  The purpose of this publication is to illustrate how  Tennessee feeder cattle prices were impacted by COVID-19 in  the first four months of 2020, compared to those same four  months historically (based on data for cattle sold through  Tennessee auction markets reported by USDA-AMS).},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/303908},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.303908},
}