Choice beef demand is rising. This week’s upward turn in the spread between choice and select beef prices, compared with the rising percentage of choice versus select beef production shows that buyers are willing to pay more for choice product in spite of a rising supply.   CHOICE/SELECT SPREAD TURNING UP   The USDA’s choice/select … Read More

Current and expected fed cattle prices have declined by about $10 per cwt over the past five weeks, said Josh Maples, assistant professor of agricultural economics at Mississippi State University, in the Livestock Marketing Information Center’s “In the Cattle Markets.” The decline has eroded the projected profitability for feedlots through the rest of the year, … Read More

Total red meat supplies in US freezers as of July 31 amounted to 1.030 billion pounds, 13 million, or up 1.28% from 1.017 billion on June 30 but were down 88 million, or 7.87% from 1.118 billion last year, according to the August Cold Storage report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Tuesday.   … Read More

The August Crop Production report surprised many by forecasting 2017 corn production at 14.153 billion bushels, said Todd Hubbs, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in an article titled “Weekly Outlook: Assessing the Prospects for 2017 Corn Production” in the university’s publication farmdoc daily.  Below is a summary of the rest of his outlook. … Read More

Large commodity investment firms, or managed money, continued to cut their net long live cattle futures positions during the week ended Tuesday, said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The CFTC said managed money’s new net long live cattle position of 79,046 contracts was the lowest since the week ended … Read More

With more cattle available outside feedlots and a larger calf crop, the US will have ample numbers for feedlot placement into 2018, according to the USDA’s Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook. Commercial beef production was forecast higher in 2018 to 27.4 billion pounds.  The US beef export outlook for 2017 was revised slightly lower, and … Read More

August is on track to have the largest cattle slaughter total so far in 2017 after stellar runs in June and July. The weekly average federally inspected cattle slaughter by month for the year wouldn’t indicate August to be an unusually large slaughter month without considering that August has nearly five work weeks in it.  … Read More