In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays speaks with Jara Settles, general counsel and vice president of risk mitigation for the Livestock Marketing Association, who reflects on a historic year for cattle markets and the critical role auction barns continue to play in the industry. Settles says 2025 will be remembered for record-setting prices, calling them “unprecedented,” and notes that while recent volatility has been uncomfortable, the broader livestock sector remains strong. “The beef industry, the livestock industry, is still a pretty bright spot relative to the entire farm economy,” she said.

Settles explains that auction markets have benefited from these high prices, even as producers and buyers hope for more stability. “It’s a good time to be selling livestock,” she said, adding that a calmer market would help everyone make “a little bit more solid plans.” Still, she emphasized that auction market owners are well positioned in the current environment, serving as a vital link between buyers and sellers during an unusual and fast-moving market cycle.

A major strength of auction barns, according to Settles, is their unmatched role in price discovery, especially when futures markets swing on sentiment. “The cash market, people still hauling livestock into a fixed facility auction… is still extremely strong,” she said. Settles stressed that competitive bidding provides “that access to liquidity, that access to cash, and the true ability to figure out what stuff is truly worth when we sit down and let people bid against each other.”

The conversation also turned to concerns over New World screwworm and the potential disruption it could cause to cattle movement if detected in the United States. Settles said LMA has been involved in discussions from the start and appreciates the opportunity to provide input. “Our big take home on New World screw worm is that in an effort to protect the industry… let’s not ruin people’s businesses either,” she said, warning against response plans that look good on paper but are impossible to implement in the real world.

Finally, Settles highlighted veterinarian access as a major challenge for many producers under some proposed mitigation scenarios. “For a lot of small, mid-sized producers, vet access is a huge issue,” she said, noting that requirements for multiple vet visits simply to move a handful of calves are unrealistic. She emphasized that LMA wants to preserve producers’ access to markets, cautioning, “What we really don’t want to see is pre-movement treatment obligations that take livestock completely out of slaughter channels.”

The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.

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