“It’s going to be a long winter,” was how Craig Hoppe, area extension beef specialist for North Dakota State University at the Carrington Research Extension Center, summed up the winter weather so far for western cattlemen. The combination of a 2 1/2-day blizzard Dec. 5 through 7, the first multi-day blizzard in years, which brought … Read More

Now is a good time for cow/calf producers to look at what the feeder cattle futures market has done the past several months and consider the spring marketing plan, said Tennessee State University Agricultural Economist Andrew Griffith in his weekly newsletter. Using the Jan contract, it is easy to see that the market has had … Read More

Live and feeder cattle futures traders may be looking at the USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report since prices recovered from an initial bearish reaction after their release on Friday. The Cold Storage report could be considered somewhat bullish rather than the monthly Cattle on Feed report or the quarterly Hogs and Pigs report, which held … Read More

Cattle producers were urged this week to take action now to pay particular attention to next year’s feed costs, since doing nothing could leave them with few chances to market cattle at a profit. Brian Williams, agricultural economist at Mississippi State University, said in in outlook report that despite improving cattle market fundamentals, the Livestock … Read More

The eating quality of US grain-fed beef has been improving over the last 10 years partly because lower-quality beef has sold at a widening discount to average quality, said a beef cattle specialist with the Certified Angus Beef brand in a recent white paper. Paul Dykstra recently published the white paper, “Why quality grades are … Read More

Retail meat and poultry prices in November declined with pork prices registering their largest month-to-month decline of the year, according to data from the USDA’s Economic Research Service. Data showed retail pork prices dropping $0.12 a pound, or 3.15%, to $3.63 a pound from $3.74 in October.  (Prices have been rounded.)  This was the largest … Read More

The number of cattle in feedlots of 1,000 or more in the primary feeding provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan remain below last year and the previous five-year average. According to the Livestock Marketing Information Center reporting CanFax data, which is delayed to the public on its official web site, the number of cattle populating the … Read More