Beef Export Outlook for 2016

While at last week's Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show, I visited with U.S. Meat Export Federation President and CEO Philip Seng and asked about the outlook for beef exports for 2016. Seng says

Seng: "Well I think we are looking at the next year as a positive year for the beef industry. We're looking at exports going up about 6 percent over this past year. That means that we should be close to about $300 a head would be the export dividend to every producer who is producing beef as a result of the export market. So these are very important numbers. We'd see our export numbers to constitute about 12 percent of the U.S production. So I think that 2016 is going to be a very good year for us."

Despite the challenges of the slowdown in the global markets and the strong U.S. dollar, Seng says U.S. beef producers will continue provide a quality product

Seng: "We always have challenges. We always have headwinds — strong dollar is one of them — but we've sold our product in these markets with strong dollars or weak dollars depending. So maybe what we will see is the product mix might change a bit rather than middle meats that are more expensive, we go thin meats and some outside meats. But frankly we will adjust as a result of this but our cattle numbers are coming back and that is encouraging. So the world understands that quality of U.S. beef and the care that goes into the production of it. It's a great story and we will continue to tell it and continue to see those numbers rise."

Analysts predict the U.S. cowherd will grow another 600,000 head in 2016 following a 1.1 million head increase in 2015.