From the Ground Up: Agriculture’s outlook for 2024

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - Reflecting on the past year, Diamond A Ranch’s Jerry Armstrong detailed the status of the beef cattle industry and gave an outlook for the future.

“We’ve had a good year, price-wise, compared to the last several years,” he said. “But everybody needs that. I mean, you don’t do very well, and then you need a good year every once in a while to kind of catch up.”

One good year to steady the ship did not pass without its fair share of issues, namely, the drought. The severe lack of rainfall in 2023 affected hay and grain prices.

“We still haven’t gotten out of our drought situation,” Armstrong said. “Hopefully, we have a change in the weather pattern through winter, and maybe in the spring, and we get some rainfall and grow some grass. We can start to rebuild the herd.”

With so many factors out of his control, like the weather, it means only the most talented producers will survive in the long haul, according to Armstrong.

”I think gone are the days where you can be an average operator and make it work,” he said. “We are gambling on the weather, we’re gambling on the market, we’re gambling on everything. It’s not enough now to just come out here and work hard and think that you’re going to make it. You’ve got to be managing the markets, your expenses, your people, everything. It’s a whole different business than it was 25, 30, 40 years ago.”

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