Cattle producers for the past several months have been dealing with a downturn in the markets. Some reports have cow calf producers and cattle feeders in South Dakota losing as much as $ 100 to $ 600 per head. SDSU Extension Risk Business Management Specialist Matt Diersen says the amount of loss varies from operation to operation. He says the supply of cattle on the market has been trending higher.

Diersen says another factor has been slower demand.

He says there’s not much producers can do in terms of management to weather the economic downturn.

Diersen says perhaps the silver lining for cattle producers is that feed costs aren’t as high as they were in the past due to the downturn in the grain markets.