Beef Demand Weaking

<a href="http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=69504" >In The Cattle Markets: Declining Domestic Demand for Beef</a><br />n<br />n<blockquote>What do recent beef demand index calculations reveal? Unfortunately, it’s not encouraging. After strengthening sharply during 2004, demand for Choice retail beef showed signs of softening during the first half of 2005, but the year-to-year declines were negligible. During the last half of 2005, however, beef demand weakened appreciably. Compared to a year earlier, beef demand index values declined 7 and 6 percent, respectively, during the third and fourth quarters of 2005. And the downtrend continued during the first half of 2006. The first quarter 2006 beef demand index value was 5 percent below the first quarter of 2005 and the second quarter 2006 index value fell 10 percent below a year earlier.</blockquote><br />n<br />nCan't have everything. The foreign markets are starting to pick up and our domestic markets are going down. I hope they balance each other out to hold the overall market steady. That's the only way I can figure to put a decent spin on this.<br />n<br />n<strong>There's a balance in my life, there's reality and there's the part that looks really glamorous, but we're all just people in the end. Olivia Newton-John</strong>