The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service Wednesday lowered its 2022 forecast for total red meat and poultry production from last month, as higher forecasts for beef and turkey production was more than offset by lower projections for pork and broilers. The predictions came in the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.   HIGHER BEEF … Read More

Female cattle slaughter remains higher than last year and the 2016-2020 average, suggesting US herd liquidation is well underway and continuing, essentially making fed cattle markets long-term bullish, a market analyst said. While federally inspected heifer and total cow slaughter rates are holding above the other two benchmark lines on Livestock Marketing Information Center graphs, … Read More

Nearly all calf buyers want to buy “reputation” livestock, but the roadmap to get there may be clouded. Nearly all stocker operators and feedlots want matched sets of calves that are weaned, castrated, dehorned, familiar with water and feed sources and immunocompetent, said Oklahoma State University Beef Cattle Nutrition Specialist Paul Beck, in a letter … Read More

As live cattle futures prices fell over the last two weeks, so did managed money’s desire to be net long live cattle futures. That would be a valid conclusion from looking at a daily bar chart of cattle futures prices and comparing it to the net positions of major players distributed by the Commodity Futures … Read More

The February USDA Cattle on Feed report said that, of the total number of cattle and calves on feed, about 18% were in feedlots with less than 1,000 head capacity and accounted for about 13% of all cattle marketed, said Elliott Dennis, Extension livestock economist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a Livestock Marketing Information … Read More

Economic activity has expanded at a modest rate since mid-January, said the Federal Reserve Bank’s latest Beige Book.   OVERALL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY   Among reporting districts, the overall economic outlook over the next six months remained stable and generally optimistic, although reports highlighted an elevated degree of uncertainty. Many Districts reported the surge in COVID-19 … Read More

Month-to-month farmer sentiment continued to fluctuate in February as the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose six points to a reading of 125, a mirror image of the previous month, a Purdue University release said. The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 US agricultural producer responses to a telephone survey.  This … Read More