Farm debt at commercial banks continued to ease in the second quarter, said Economists Nathan Kauffman and Ty Kreitman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in a release. Agricultural loan balances decreased by 5% from the previous year because of a relatively large decline in production loans, the economists said.  Although farm lending increased … Read More

Economic growth downshifted slightly to a moderate pace in early July through August, said the Federal Reserve in its latest “Beige Book,” Wednesday. The stronger sectors of the economy included manufacturing, transportation, nonfinancial services and residential real estate.  But the overall deceleration in economic activity largely was attributable to a pullback in dining out, travel … Read More

Supplemental feeding can be beneficial for stockers grazing summer pastures – sometimes. Research indicated supplementation can be used to replace nitrogen fertilizers, but the best program depended on the economic relationship between the value of the calf’s gain and the cost of the inputs like fertilizer and feed supplements, said Paul Beck, associate professor of … Read More

Managed money, a proxy for large commodity investment funds, cut their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended last Tuesday as hedgers trimmed their total net short position. The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.   FUNDS CUT LIVE CATTLE POSITION   The … Read More

In January, members of Congress proposed new legislation to increase the national minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.25, where it has been for more than a decade, but what happens when the minimum wage rises? It depends on monetary policy, said Kansas City Federal Reserve Economists Andrew Glover and Jose Mustre-del-Rio in a … Read More

After playing with lots of numbers and assumptions, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel’s best guess is that the drought has added 0.5% to 1.0% of additional beef herd liquidation this year. But it’s hard to tell, Peel said in a letter to Extension agents called Cow/Calf Corner.   BEEF COW SLAUGHTER … Read More

Continued strength in the feeder cattle and slaughter cow markets has been beneficial to producers marketing cattle the past several weeks, said Andrew Griffith, agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee in a letter to Extension agents.   CASH PRICES STRONG   Cash feeder cattle prices are strong, and futures indicate continued strength into 2022, … Read More