For the second straight week, large commodity investment funds, known as managed money, sold live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday, as hedgers covered short positions. The information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. Managed money’s new collective net long live cattle position Tuesday totaled 54,322 contracts, … Read More

Each fall, cow/calf producers have to estimate their winter hay needs, and Glenn Selk, Emeritus Extension Animal Scientist at Oklahoma State University, addressed this in a letter to Extension agents called Cow/Calf Corner. In the letter, Selk said winter hay needs will vary dramatically from place to place.  Also, hay feeding will start earlier and … Read More

Alternative Marketing Arrangements retook center stage in the fed cattle market over the last several weeks as two bills designed to increase market transparency work through Congress, said Elliot Dennis, livestock Extension economist at the University of Nebraska, in a letter to extension agents through the Livestock Marketing Information Center called In The Cattle Markets. … Read More

After an unseasonal rise and fall over the summer, the difference between wholesale prices for USDA choice and select beef caught the seasonal trend and is widening again. If the trend continues as per the 2014-2018 average, the choice/select spread, as it is known in the industry, will continue to widen until the first week … Read More

Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, cut their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday, Oct. 6. At the same time, commercial traders, those who own the cattle and use the futures market primarily for hedging, cut their collective net short position to its lowest point in two months. … Read More

The USDA’s 2020 total red meat and poultry production forecast was raised from last month despite a lower outlook for pork. The data came from the USDA’s monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report Friday. This year’s beef production forecast was raised from the September report on higher expected second-half cattle slaughter, the report … Read More

August sales of fed cattle to beef packers from Kansas feedlots rose again to nudge out year-earlier sales for this year’s monthly high. The data came from a monthly survey of select Kansas feedlots by the Kansas State University Extension Department.  The data was then compiled and extrapolated by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in … Read More