The beef byproduct value is showing some late-season strength despite a rising US Dollar Index since early September as hide values climbed, said the Livestock Marketing Information Center in its Livestock Monitor. The byproduct value is the total value of all non-meat items produced from an animal such as cheek meat, hearts, livers, tripe, tongue, … Read More

Fed cattle prices are going to have trouble engineering a sustained price rally with wholesale beef prices headed lower. This is an ongoing story with the main character, beef prices, keep following the trend of last year rather than the 1010-2014 average. Choice beef prices have worked unevenly lower all year, refusing to kowtow to … Read More

Cash wheat prices in the Central Plains may be far enough below corn to make switching to wheat as the primary source of energy in cattle feeding diets workable financially, but few are doing it. One area feedlot owner and manager said he had broached the subject to his nutritionist who had replied that out … Read More

Large investment funds, called managed money, continued to liquidate live cattle futures contracts in the week ended Tuesday, while commercial traders covered more short positions. That information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The report showed managed money’s new net long live cattle futures position was 21,160 contracts, … Read More

US beef exports were expected to grow for a second year, as shipments to South Korea, Japan and Mexico increase, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Office of Global Analysis, said in its monthly report of World Markets and Trade. Lower production in Australia as the herd there is grown “will reduce exportable supplies and thus … Read More

Hog producers are in trouble.  Even though China’s pork imports have surged, US producers are out-producing domestic and export markets, presenting a problem for beef producers. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service count of all hogs and pigs is record high at 70.851 million head as of Sep. 1, yet prices for all weight categories … Read More

The US continues to have a healthy and growing presence in the international beef trade, according to two October USDA reports. The USDA’s Economic Research Service said August beef imports (the latest data) were down 49.979 million pounds, or 16.0% from 312.890 million a year earlier. August’s beef exports, on the other hand, were 235.5 … Read More