Last week, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service released its “2019 US Agricultural Export Yearbook” that provided a statistical summary of US agricultural commodity exports to the world and the US’ primary trading partners. With respect to China, the update indicated that, “In 2019, US agricultural exports to China totaled $13.8 billion, up from $9.1 billion … Read More
Study Finds Kansas Cattle Prices/Futures In Line
A 10-year study of hedged and unhedged fed cattle prices in Kansas showed that Kansas prices and the live cattle futures prices were related in the way they should be. There is no obvious upward or downward bias in the hedged price versus unhedged, said Kansas State University Agricultural Economist Brian Coffey, on the department’s … Read More
Beef, Pork Production Rebounding
Weekly US federally inspected beef and pork production have rebounded from their COVID-induced weekly lows and remain above last year and their respective 2014-2018 averages, but it may not be making up the difference just yet. It’s hard to tell what beef and pork production might have been at this point in the year without … Read More
Cattle Report Raises Accuracy Questions
The semi-annual USDA Cattle (Inventory) report Friday raised some eyebrows and produced many conversations within the cattle industry about the number of feeder cattle outside of feedlots. There doesn’t seem to be a good answer at this point, but many think the USDA got it wrong. The July Cattle report often is considered to be … Read More
Cattle Producers Have Hedging Opportunities: Economist
Given current conditions in cattle futures markets and feed production, cattle producers have some options to lock in margin, said Elliot Dennis, assistant professor and extension economist for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a letter to Extension agents through the Livestock Marketing Information Center’s weekly In The Cattle Markets. Feeder cattle futures price spreads across … Read More
Red Meat, Poultry Supplies Mixed
Total red meat supplies in freezers on June 30 were up 1% from the previous month but down 12% from last year, according to the monthly Cold Storage report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Wednesday. Total frozen poultry supplies were up 4% from the previous month but down 3% from a year ago. … Read More
Canada Cattle On Feed Following Trend At Higher Level
As the number of cattle on feed in the US remains near last year, the number populating Canadian feedlots remains above near-earlier totals. Data from CanFax, a Canadian market advisory firm, showed that cattle on feed in Alberta and Saskatchewan, totaled 943,959 head on July 1, down 79,041, or 7.73%, from 1.023 million a month … Read More