At a time when most cattle traders are focused on beef and corn prices, something as mundane as beef cattle female slaughter could slip under the radar, but it shouldn’t, a market analyst said. Continued drought in many western US states appears to be adding to a move to liquidate some beef cows, just as … Read More

The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer was virtually unchanged in April from March, up one point to a reading of 178, said Purdue Agricultural Economist James Mintert, in a release. The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 US agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey.  This month’s survey was conducted from … Read More

Spiking US corn prices were thought to be attributed by a market analyst solely to prospects for strong exports and domestic needs. So far, the pace of US corn planting likely won’t generate a weather spike in prices, as it’s well ahead of the 2016-2020 average, the market analyst said following the release of the … Read More

Large commodity investment firms, known as managed money, divested themselves of long live cattle positions during the week ended Tuesday, taking their collective net long position Tuesday to its lowest point in three months. At the same time, those who own the cattle at some point and theoretically could make or take delivery of a … Read More

Along with beef and pork, wholesale chicken prices are rising fast with the national composite weekly price now above the 2015-2019 average. Data from the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and compiled by the Livestock Marketing Information Center showed a composite price last week of 101.95 cents a pound, the highest of the year and up … Read More

The pork cutout value continues to climb counter seasonally with last week reaching $113.88 per cwt, up $49.02, or 54.2%, since the start of the year, said the Livestock Marketing Information Center, in a letter to Extension agents called the Livestock Monitor. However, while the pork cutout is climbing rapidly at an unusual time of … Read More

US corn demand is up in the 2020/21 marketing year from 2019/20 with exports playing a leading role, said Ben Brown, of the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in a release on Illinois farmdocdaily. The USDA increased its 2020/21 US corn export forecast by 75 million bushels in the … Read More