US total red meat production is back above last year but probably not enough to make up for what was lost to COVID-19 packing plant closures, a market analyst said.   WEEKLY TOTAL RED MEAT PRODUCTION UP   Weekly federally inspected red meat production last week was pegged by the USDA at 1.098 billion pounds, … Read More

Data and anecdotal indications, say the COVID backlog of fed cattle is rapidly diminishing and may be nearly cleaned up, said Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economist Derrell Peel, in a newsletter to Extension Agents called Cow/Calf Corner. Going forward, the one-million-head decrease in feedlot placements in February, March and April suggests front-end feedlot supplies will … Read More

Pending Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., will amend the live cattle and feeder cattle futures contracts on Oct. 5, expanding initial margins and linking expanded margins in both, a CME Group announcement said. Daily price limits for live cattle futures will be expanded to $0.040 a pound from the current … Read More

Total US red meat supplies in freezers on July 31 were up about 1% at 948.398 million pounds from the previous month but down around 15% from last year, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said Monday in its monthly Cold Storage report. Total frozen poultry supplies at the end of July were up about … Read More

Large commodity investment firms, called managed money, kept buying live cattle futures during the week ended Tuesday, extending their collective net long position for the fifth straight week. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday provided the data that said managed money’s new net long live cattle futures position … Read More

8-21-20 – Wholesale beef prices are rising rapidly, driven by gains in higher-priced cuts, even though restaurant demand has been slashed by the Great Lockdown. Boxed beef prices apparently are rising sharply as retail grocers step into the spot market to shore up supplies ahead of the Labor Day holiday, a market analyst said.  With … Read More

Second-half 2020 forecasts for beef production were increased from last month on a faster-than-anticipated slaughter pace, the USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board said in its monthly Outlook report. The anticipated increase in slaughter raised the annual beef production forecast to 27.0 billion pounds, the Outlook report said.  The 2021 production forecast was lowered to 27.6 … Read More