Cattle producers are being advised to be prepared, have a game plan, and keep their eye on the market.  That's the advice from Cattle Trends market analyst Anne Wasko.

Wasko says this fall, in just seven weeks, we saw the U.S. fed cattle and live cattle market drop $30 U.S. per hundred weight.

It's been extreme — some say it was one of the most historic declines.

"What drove that was a lot of things," Wasko says, "the global economic slowdown kind of being one of them, and lots of pork and poultry as we continue to move through the year, and looking ahead to 2016. But the straw that broke the camel's back was a very large supply of overweight cattle in the U.S., especially in the corn belt region."

She says the market seems to have settled down now and found some strength. Wasko adds the markets still remain very volatile from outside influences like weather, trade and exchange rates.