The recent federal shutdown has affected two of South Dakota’s largest markets, the calf and feeder markets. SDSU Extension Risk Management Specialist Matt Diersen says price discovery and the ability to transfer risk have been hampered considerably. He says because of that producers have to look harder for information…
Diersen says prices for calves and feeder cattle are normally monitored and reported by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service but with the shutdown, the market reporters were furloughed. He says local price information then becomes even more important for producers.
Diersen says another problem is that without the information provided by A-M-S, producers don’t know what the underlying cash market is or how accurate it is.
Diersen says Livestock Risk Protection insurance is not available because administrators of those programs have been furloughed.