As of Tuesday, large commodity index funds, known as managed money, had cut their collective net long live cattle futures position for the second week, as cattle owners trimmed their total net short position. The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.   FUNDS SELL CATTLE   Friday’s … Read More

Last year’s wider-than-normal price spread between southern Plains fed cattle and their more northern counterparts is gone for now, but the elements are in place to regenerate it this year. The question is: “how wide can it go?” asked independent market consultant Nevil Speer, in a telephone interview. “There is a tug-o-war going on between … Read More

Total red meat supplies in freezers on Dec. 31 were up about 2% from the previous month and up about 11% from last year, the USDA said in its monthly Cold Storage report Wednesday. Total frozen poultry supplies on Dec. 31 were up about 7% from the previous month and up about 23% from a … Read More

US consumers are responding to rising food prices with a variety of cost-reduction behaviors like buying cheaper brands, reducing the amount of non-food items purchased and cutting down on eating out, a Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy survey found. Summarized by the Illinois Farmdocdaily, the study, done by Maria Kalaitzandonakes and Jonathan Coppess, University of … Read More

2020 and 2021 were good times for people looking to find a job in Nebraska, but labor shortages now constrain business activity, and inflation is an ongoing challenge, said Nate Kauffman and John McCoy, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in a publication. Nebraska’s labor shortages reached all-time highs in 2022, with … Read More

Large commodity investment firms, known as managed money, reduced their collective net long live cattle position during the week ended Tuesday as cattle owners, called commercial traders, cut their total net short position. All that was from Friday’s weekly Commitments of Traders report from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.   FUNDS SELL CATTLE   The … Read More

Two years of drought have depleted US hay stocks severely, presenting challenges for cattle producers, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University agricultural economist, in a letter to Extension agents called Cow-Calf Corner. The Dec. 1 hay stocks report from the USDA showed total stocks of 71.9 million short tons, 16.4% below the previous 10-year average … Read More