Managed money and commercial traders sold live cattle futures positions in the week ended Tuesday, a move that signals a more bearish attitude among traders. In its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said that as of Tuesday, managed money, or large commodity funds, had a net long live cattle … Read More

Cattle and beef supply challenges mean producer and lender caution is warranted, but all is not lost, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University extension livestock marketing specialist in a market comment. Growth in cattle inventories and beef production do not constitute a wreck, and paralyzing fear that cripples decision making may prevent producers from taking … Read More

If cow/calf producers have calves to market this fall, the best strategy is to turn freshly weaned calves into yearlings and sell them immediately, said a prominent agricultural economist. Dan Childs, senior consultant for the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation said in a market analysis that marketing those yearlings through a value-added sale would be even … Read More

Consistently lower estimated and real cow/calf returns this year may lower heifer retention for breeding but could play only a minor role in total herd growth as of Jan. 1, as reported by the USDA. The Livestock Marketing Information Center has consistently ratcheted down estimated cow-calf returns this year.  Fourth-quarter calf prices were estimated to … Read More

US hog inventories are rising, reaching record proportions as of Sep. 1, according to the USDA’s quarterly Hogs and Pigs report Friday.  As a result, some analysts said after the report that fourth-quarter slaughter capacity will be strained to the limit. And when slaughter capacity for any food livestock is tested with record supplies, lower … Read More

Total meat supplies in cold storage at the end of August were well above the 2010-2014 average, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s monthly Cold Storage report, which was released on Friday.  This is liable to keep live animal price gains in check, at least for a while. Frozen beef supplies remained above last … Read More

The outlook for the farm economy continued to worsen this year, despite some occasional rebounds in income and profit margins, said Nathan Kauffman, assistant vice president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, in an analysis. “As 2016 winds down, there will be increasing focus on the outlook for 2017 and likely more questions about … Read More