The wholesale beef market, as measured by the choice boxed beef cutout value, has been on a rollercoaster ride over the course of this year, said David Anderson, livestock and food product marketing specialist at Texas A&M University, in a letter from the Livestock Marketing Information Center called In The Cattle Markets. That often is … Read More

Pre-finishing management has lasting effects on feedyard performance, carcass weight and whole-system efficiency, said Paul Beck, Oklahoma State University beef cattle nutrition specialist, in a letter called Cow-Calf Corner. Pasture-based stocker programs generally produce heavier finished cattle, larger ribeye areas and improved efficiency compared with dry-lot backgrounding, Beck said.  Across segments of the beef industry, … Read More

Beef imports increased 18.0% year over year in 2025, said Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University, in a letter called Cow-Calf Corner. Total beef imports increased sharply because of declining US beef production and high prices as the current market developed, Peel said.  Total beef imports are up 61.4% since 2022. … Read More

Large operating and livestock loans continued to drive strong growth in farm lending activity at commercial banks in the first quarter of 2026, said Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank Associate Economist Ty Kreitman, in a Bank release. According to the National Survey of Terms of Lending to Farmers, the volume of non-real estate loans for … Read More

During the week ended Tuesday, large commodity index investment firms, known as managed money, advance their collective net long live cattle futures position to its largest point in more than a year, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. At the same time, cash cattle traders, or commercial traders, pushed their total net … Read More

An overwhelming majority of America’s farmers who responded to a nationwide survey said they cannot afford to purchase enough fertilizer to get them through the year. Conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation April 3-11, the survey showed 70% of respondents said fertilizer was so expensive they would not be able to buy all they … Read More

Overall economic activity increased at a slight to modest pace in eight of the 12 Federal Reserve districts, while two reported little change and two reported slight to modest declines, according to the Federal Reserve Bank’s Beige Book Wednesday. The Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current economic conditions across the 12 … Read More