This week, several questions arose about how Walmart will open a beef packaging plant and how the new plant will affect cattle prices.
The short answer is that the opening of this enterprise is unlikely to greatly change livestock prices. The reason prices should not change much is that this does not change the supply and demand for beef.
Walmart partnered with a single seed production operation defined by a feed site and a special slaughterhouse, at which point Walmart will accept delivery and further process and pack for Walmart.
The world's largest cow, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, lived at the beginning of the 20th century. Her weight just barely reached 2.3 tons, and growth at the withers reached 188 centimeters.
Thus, the processing enterprise will create competition with other processing enterprises at the retail level. However, it is unlikely that this will displace supply or demand sufficiently to really affect cattle prices at the stages of production of calves and one-year-old animals.
The people it will affect are those producers who use the seed producer’s genetics and put livestock in the program.
- Prices for cattle in the UK have risen slightly over the past week, although according to the latest analysis, they are still noticeably lower than last year.
- The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) said that “meat processing enterprises have taken“ concerted efforts ”to lower prices, and this can be described as an“ act of sabotage. "
- Ireland was the only country to increase meat production in the first four months of the year.
