Friday’s semi-annual Cattle (inventory) report confirmed evidence from USDA reports and anecdotal reports from the field, namely that the US cattle herd is contracting rapidly. Friday’s Cattle report showed a total inventory of 98.8 million head, down 2.0 million, or 1.98%, from 100.8 million in the mid-year report from 2021.  Greg Henderson, from AgWeb, said … Read More

Most of the eastern third of the US recorded precipitation during the week ended Thursday, according to the weekly Drought Monitor from the National Weather Service. Portions of the Midwest and into the Southeast had some amounts of more than 3 inches and even widespread 5+-inch amounts in the coastal areas of Florida, the NWS … Read More

Friday, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service is scheduled to release its July Cattle (inventory) report with national estimates of inventories by category along with the first estimate of the 2022 calf crop. With widespread drought conditions, the focus will be on the female side of the industry in terms of how much beef cow … Read More

Data from the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association showed that from 2012 to 2021, grain farms generally had the strongest ratio of working capital to gross farm revenue.  Cattle and hog farms were more variable, said a study by the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Assn., published by Farmdocdaily. Overall, working capital to Gross … Read More

As late as last week, 2022 US feed grain production was expected by the USDA to be slightly higher than last month’s estimate, reflecting higher planted acreage for corn in the June 30 Acreage report, according to the USDA’s July Feed Outlook report. US corn production was raised 45 million bushels on expectations of increased … Read More

After two weeks of declines in their collective net long live cattle futures position, large commodity index funds, known as managed money, stepped up and increased their position in the week ended Tuesday. The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday in which it also said commercial traders … Read More

An IMF blog by Kristalina Georgieva listing how the G20 can respond to a darkening economic outlook was an interesting read.  Here is a shortened version.   When the G20 last met in April, the IMF had just cut its global growth forecast to 3.6% for this year and next.  Since then, several predicted risks … Read More