The difference between choice and select wholesale beef prices is narrowing as quickly as it widened, accelerating a seasonal decline, as the percentage of choice carcasses to select remains historically high. Last week, the choice/select spread was reported by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service at $18.40 per cwt, down $4.59, or 20.0%, from $22.99 the previous … Read More

Cattle and beef markets likely will consider the Cattle-On-Feed report as only slightly bearish to neutral, but there still is reason to worry about meat supplies. The major meats of beef and pork in cold storage showed declines from April, but this is normal.  Total red meats on ice also showed a seasonal tendency to … Read More

A soaring US dollar in the wake of Thursday’s vote by British citizens to secede from the European Union will hamper US export efforts, which could be bad to very bad for the US economy as a whole. It all will depend on how long the greenback remains elevated in relation to other world currencies. … Read More

Many cattle and beef market analysts feel that beef’s main competitor at the retail level is chicken, not pork.  Thus, it pays to pay attention to what poultry companies, called integrators, are doing. The statistics most used by market analysts are contained in the USDA’s monthly Chicken and Eggs report, which was released Tuesday.  Broiler … Read More

Average retail beef prices in May were down, pressuring fed cattle prices, and the outlook for a reversal of this trend looks bleak without a major demand driver. The average price for all fresh beef in grocery stores during May was $5.838 a pound, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics and the USDA’s Economic Research … Read More

In its monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook, the USDA’s Economic Research Service lowered its 2016 estimated beef production to 24.7 billion pounds from the previous estimate of 24.8 billion amid lower slaughter weights in May. However, the estimated 2016 beef production still is 4.12% higher than the 24.7 billion pounds produced in 2015.  And … Read More

Large investment funds, called managed money, and those who handle the cattle inched their net positions toward the long side during the week ended Tuesday. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission made the revelations Friday in its weekly Commitments Of Traders report.  The report showed managed money with a net long position of 24,404 contracts, up … Read More