Through the first half of the year, year-to-date cattle slaughter was 8.7% lower than last year, and placements were higher this year compared to last year, said Charley Martinez, agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee in a Livestock Marketing Information Center letter called In The Cattle Markets. Those two stats provide information about current … Read More

Total red meat supplies in US freezers on June 30 were down about 1% from the previous month but up about 3% from last year, according to the USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report Friday. Total frozen poultry supplies June 30 were up about 4% from the previous month and up about 2% from a year … Read More

The USDA’s semi-annual Cattle (Inventory) report Friday said the US cattle inventory on July 1 of 94.2 million head, slightly more than the 94.0 million head on July 1, 2025. A market analyst said the report showed a gradual increase in total numbers, but it may not be enough to indicate the sprout of a … Read More

Weekly regional feeder cattle prices are off from the previous week but in general appear to be locked into a sideways pattern. It’s as if cattle feeders are afraid current weakness in fed cattle prices will continue.  Continual expectations that beef consumers will pull back from beef may have the cattle and beef markets spooked, … Read More

Beef demand is very complex.  Although it is discussed as a single concept it is, in fact, the demand for many different beef products, each of which is a separate market, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist, in a letter called Cow-Calf Corner. Figure 1 shows the average seasonal pattern of … Read More

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange announced Tuesday that it planned to reintroduce a grain sorghum futures contract with trading expected to start on Aug. 24. A grain sorghum contract was tried by the Chicago Board of Trade and the Kansas City Board of Trade in the early 1970s, but suffered from a lack of liquidity.  In … Read More

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Tuesday announced it had launched new futures contracts for 90% lean and 50% lean beef, allowing beef processors and grinders the opportunity to hedge and price their raw products for blending. The contracts officially were listed on Monday, but because the first listed trading dates established a forward curve rather than … Read More