Thousands of Cattle Dying in South Africa

Southern Africa is currently experiencing one of its most severe droughts in the past 20 years, with serious consequences for agriculture and animal welfare.

The Red Meat Producers Organisation (RMPO) said that more than 40,000 cattle had died in the South African region of KwaZulu-Natal alone, and serious losses of livestock are currently being experienced in the sector across South Africa.

The current poor pasture conditions follow reduced rainfall at the end of the 2014/2015 summer season, a situation that was not relieved by winter rainfall.

The RMPO said that this meant very limited planting has yet been possible in the summer rainfall areas and grain prices have already started to rise.

The organisation added that commercial enterprises would take three to four seasons to recover economically, and that the drought would also have negative impacts on the 1.2 million households owning small numbers of cattle, sheep and goats – read more.

In market news, this week’s Cattle on Feed Report from the USDA is expected to show the second smallest October placements in the US since 1996, with cattle feeders currently more than $500 per head in the red.

"October Placements are expected to be 5.9 per cent smaller than last year, at 2.228 million head,” said Rich Nelson, chief strategist at Allendale, Inc – read more here.

Meanwhile, CME analysts reported that Canada’s beef cattle herd at the start of 2015 was down two per cent compared with 2014, continuing inventory declines since 2006.

Canadian placements on feed have been below year ago levels seven out of the eleven months on record so far in 2015 – read more.