While wholesale beef prices are struggling to make seasonal gains, it’s too early to tell if it is because of reduced demand linked to the Covid-19 Coronavirus, said Derrell Peel, agricultural economist for Oklahoma State University, in a letter to Extension agents called Cow/Calf Corner. It is certainly possible that there has been some bearish … Read More

The USDA raised its 2020 forecast of total red meat and poultry production from last month as beef, pork and poultry production estimates all moved up. The new estimates came in the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report Tuesday.  Higher fed cattle slaughter and heavier weights, increased pork slaughter rates and a boost … Read More

Feedlot sales of fed steers to packing plants, or closeouts, in January were less than January 2019 but more than the 2014-2018 average, according to data collected by the Kansas State University Extension Service and compiled and distributed by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. The K-State Extension Service surveys select, representative feed yards … Read More

Large commodity index funds lost more faith in live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday, moving their collective position to being net short from net long, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The new position for those index funds, known in the trade as managed money, on … Read More

Selecting for just one trait can be ruinous in the cow-calf business, but it depends on how that one trait is related to others and how well other traits are kept balanced, according to Dan Loy, director of the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University, in a release. Loy recently led an analysis of … Read More

It looks like the US is in for more beef production this year as it takes time for the total herd declines to result in fewer cattle to slaughter. For the first two months of the year, weekly fed cattle slaughter rates ran ahead of last year and the previous five-year average.  This, along with … Read More

Producers’ perception of improved current conditions in the agricultural economy pushed the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer to a record high this month, said Jim Mintert, Purdue agricultural economist, in a release. The barometer rose to 168 in February, an increase of one point from January, and was 18 points higher than in December, … Read More