Managed money, or large commodity investment firms, raised their collective net long position in live cattle futures during the week ended Tuesday to 83,961 contracts, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. Managed money’s new live cattle position was up 10,549 contracts, or 14.4%, from 73,412 contracts the … Read More

12-21-18 – The US Food and Drug Administration reported this week that annual domestic sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobials approved for use in feed-producing animals declined by 33% in 2017. The FDA also said feed use for disease prevention dropped sharply last year to less than a million pounds. The data came from … Read More

The US beef cow herd could be higher in the semi-annual report in January, in spite of increased cow and heifer slaughter this year, said the Livestock Marketing Information Center in a letter to Extension agents. The LMIC letter said its current estimate for the Jan. 1 beef cow herd count was somewhere north of … Read More

Kansas feedlot closeouts, or sales of slaughter-ready cattle to packer buyers, continued to decline in October, but the rate of monthly decline leveled somewhat. The Livestock Marketing Information Center released its findings after extrapolating and compiling the data collected by the Kansas State University Extension service gathered from select feedlots around the state. The average … Read More

Retail beef prices were strong in November in spite of increased meat supplies, said Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel in a letter to Extension agents. November average choice retail beef price was $5.91 a pound, up from $5.84 in October and 1.8% above the November 2017 price of $5.81, according to … Read More

The USDA’s Economic Research Service Thursday projected higher corn and sorghum ending stocks this year despite lowered production forecasts by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Monthly USDA Situation and Outlook Report Authors Tom Capehart, Olga Liefert and David Olson reduced projected corn used for ethanol for the 20187/19 crop by 50 million bushels to … Read More

Packer buyers may not be paying the premiums for choice- or prime-grading cattle they were paying a year ago, but USDA-Agricultural Marketing Service data show they are getting more. That likely is because of an increase in the number of cattle being slaughtered, a market analyst said.  Data from the AMS and USDA’s National Agricultural … Read More