US beef exports in September continued to struggle while pork exports showed modest gains, according to the USDA. Beef exports during the month fell 20,594 tonnes, or 20.6% in volume from a year earlier to 79,474 from 100,068 tonnes in September 2014.  The value of these exports was down $175.3 million, or 27.7%, to $456.6 … Read More

It looks like the old adage, that high prices cure high prices is holding true as the high prices do their job in stimulating herd expansion that now is pressuring cattle prices. Chris Hurt, livestock market extension economist at Purdue University wrote recently that most likely, the highest cash cattle prices of this cattle cycle … Read More

Feedlots are liable to see their feed costs hold relatively stable for the foreseeable future as corn prices rattle around in a sideways pattern, a prominent agricultural economist wrote. Darrel Good, agricultural economist at the University of Illinois, said, “A broad sideways pattern (for corn prices) is expected to continue through the winter months.  A … Read More

Cash cattle prices may be topping out in spite of a seasonal tendency to move higher through the rest of the year. A Livestock Marketing Information Center graph of USDA average Southern Plains fed cattle prices for the year shows the downward path the market has been on since Jan. 1. A pronounced dip in … Read More

Managed money, or large speculators, increased their net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday, Oct. 27, for the second straight week.  Yet the gains seemed tepid and left them with a near-neutral net long position. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported Friday that for the week, managed money held a new … Read More

Retailer demand for holiday beef cuts is showing up in rising prices for choice primal ribs, with demand for other choice-graded products in tow. The USDA Thursday reported its price for the choice rib primal, from which those juicy rib roasts are cut, at $359.58 per cwt, a one-day gain of $9.33, or 2.66%, from … Read More

As work progresses on the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility near Manhattan, KS, Kansas State University research has simulated the economic effect of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. FMD has been called the most infectious disease known to man, even though it does not affect humans.  Cloven-hoofed animals like cattle and hogs … Read More