Today’s USDA Cattle-On-Feed report is expected to show an increase in the number of cattle placed into US feedlots in March, a move that will add weight to market prices over the coming weeks and months. Pre-report estimates indicated expectations for placements to be up 6% to 7% on average with the range of estimates … Read More

The potential for a dry summer in the Plains has many cow/calf producers examining their herds, looking for a possible cull candidate or two. Key to dealing with weather issues is good planning, and that means getting ready for modified stocking rates and good cattle sorting, writes Kris Ringwall, beef specialist at North Dakota State … Read More

Cattle feeding margins improved substantially with the cattle sold for slaughter last week, but they remain negative by nearly $50 a head. The calculations were made by John Nalivka, president of Sterling Marketing of Vale, Ore., and author of the Sterling Profit Tracker, which is published by AgWeb. Calculations showed that the average loss for … Read More

If cash cattle and beef markets are like last year, the annual fed cattle top may already be in. Rising fed cattle numbers and continued pushback by beef consumers may make cash cattle prices behave more like last year and less like the 2010-2014 average.  If so, the picture isn’t pretty. Live cattle futures prices … Read More

Managed money, a proxy for large investors, trimmed its net long live cattle positions while commercial traders continued to ease their net short positions. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Friday that for the week ended Tuesday, managed money had reduced its net long position in live cattle futures to 25,105 contracts from 26,623 the … Read More

Wholesale prices for beef ribeyes are in the throes of a counter-seasonal decline and may be a good part of the reason beef packers aren’t bidding more for live cattle. It also may have something to do with cattle investors’ reluctance to bid cattle higher. A Livestock Marketing Information Center graph of USDA Agricultural Marketing … Read More

Historical basis data indicate the nearby Apr futures contract may have little room to grow while the Jun contract may be too high, and cash prices this week have another level of pressure. The 2010-2014 fed steer basis for Kansas cattle, or the difference between the live cattle cash price and the futures contract price, … Read More