EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Beef Market Update: The cost of feeding cattle spikes higher, as unknowns mount.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or tonight, or how long it’s going to last. So the markets are reacting in that same extremely volatile way,” Wasko says. “And you know, we know Ukraine’s a key corn exporter in the world, and so it has significant impacts on our key feed for cattle. That’s I guess what it comes down to in terms of we just don’t know what’s going to happen to corn prices, and cost of grain, and therefore the price of cattle.”

And this is only half of the problem — cattle on feed numbers are higher than ever, and before all of this happened with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we were short on feed supplies to begin with.

“It’s a huge problem when that supply chain has been so fragile anyways. To have any kind of flicker there and some insecurity, that is just going to create lots and lots of concern and angst,” says Wasko.

2020: Food Prices Up 20% Over the Past Year.

2021: Hold my (surprisingly expensive) beer.