The USDA’s Economic Research Service said this week that packers had pushed slaughter levels higher in the fourth quarter, raising the quarter’s beef production forecast by 100 million pounds from November to nearly 7.0 billion pounds. The forecast came in the monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook and went on to predict annual 2019 beef … Read More

Sharply higher fed cattle weights have increased beef production, but another wintery blast could temper this, said Oklahoma State University Extension Economist Derrell Peel, in a letter to Extension agents called Cow/Calf Corner. After spending much of the year below year-ago levels on a weekly basis, carcass weights moved sharply higher in October and November, … Read More

The difference between wholesale choice and select beef prices likely will continue to narrow until the last week of February, if normal trends are followed. The difference, called the choice/select spread, closed up from an unusually wide range through the summer and fall and now is near last year and the previous five-year average. It’s … Read More

Although Oklahoma’s economy continued to expand through the first half of 2019, several growth indicators slowed, said the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in a study. Job growth has stalled, unemployment claims have risen and tax receipts have declined, suggesting little, if any, overall growth, the bank said.  Energy activity in particular declined significantly this … Read More

Initially spurred to higher prices by news that the US and China had agreed to a Phase One trade pact, Friday’s commodity and equities markets lost some of their bullish enthusiasm by their closes. The deal requires some reforms by China in the area of intellectual property, technology transfer, agriculture, financial services and currency and … Read More

Domestic sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobials approved for use in food-producing animals increased 9% in 2018, said a US Food And Drug Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine, report on the subject. However, the FDA warned in the report that the data do not show how the drugs were used.  And, with the exception … Read More

Kansas feedlots sold fewer fed cattle to beef packing plants in October than a year earlier or the 2013-2017 average for October, according to data collected by the Kansas State University Extension service and compiled by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. After the extension service collects data from selected, representative feedlots across Kansas, … Read More