The Animal Agriculture Alliance this week urged farmers and ranchers to be alert for animal activist trends, including “undercover videos,” marketing campaigns targeting human emotion and legislative pressure.   MESSAGE IN A NUTSHELL   In a release, the AAA said key takeaways from animal rights extremist conferences this year included the following: –“Animal rights activists … Read More

The Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book Wednesday said US economic activity was about flat or up slightly since the previous report on Oct. 19. Five Districts reported slight or modest gains in activity, and the rest experienced either no change or slight-to-modest declines, the Beige Book said.  Interest rates and inflation continued to weigh on … Read More

The level of cow and heifer slaughter this year is very rare and indicates the most severe depletion of female cattle inventories in more than three decades, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist, in a letter called Cow-Calf Corner.   BEEF COW SLAUGHTER UP, SLOWING   It’s too early to be … Read More

Managed money, a moniker for large commodity index funds, boosted their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended last Tuesday, Nov. 22, as hedgers upped their total net short ante. The data was from the Commitments of Traders report issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.  The report usually is released … Read More

Data from Oklahoma State University suggest that calves enrolled in a verifiable preconditioning program are likely to bring premiums over those not enrolled in any program. The data showed that calves in the Oklahoma Quality Beef Network Vac-45 preconditioning protocol received premiums averaging $12.55 per cwt over the 2011-2021 period, said Paul Vining, Oklahoma Quality … Read More

It looks like beef demand is holding steady, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist, in a newsletter to Extension agents called Cow-Calf Corner. “Demand” considers retail prices as well as the quantity of consumption, Peel said. “The all-fresh retail beef price in October was $7.25 a pound, down slightly from $7.32 … Read More

Total red meat supplies in freezers on Oct. 31 were down about 4% from the previous month but up about 11% from last year, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said in its monthly Cold Storage report Tuesday. Frozen pork supplies were down about 5% from the previous month but up about 16% from last … Read More