Large commodity investment funds added to their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday, as hedgers boosted their net short position, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Friday. The raw data was contained in the CFTC’s weekly Commitments of Traders report.   FUNDS TAKE LARGER LONG CATTLE … Read More

US winters can be harsh, and keeping cattle healthy becomes more labor intensive as the mercury drops.  Cattle may struggle to put on weight or maintain their normal level of milk production. But cattle can thrive in the winter if they are cared for properly, according to an article from Zareba, a Canadian livestock enclosure … Read More

Boxed beef prices are falling this week as beef packers ramp up production with almost a full staff, but product demand is lacking seasonally, market sources said. Food service beef demand has been especially limp, according to Urner Barry.  This is in contrast to what seemed to be happening last week as beef demand picked … Read More

Farmer sentiment weakened in January as the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer declined six points to a reading of 119, its second-lowest reading since July 2020, said Purdue Agricultural Economist James Mintert, in a release. The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 US agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey.  This … Read More

The total US cattle herd on Jan. 1 was fewer than a year earlier and fewer than a small sampling of analyst estimates. The semi-annual count of the US cattle herd came up with an estimated 91.902 million head, down 1.888 million, or 2.01%, from 93.790 million a year earlier and below the average of … Read More

Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, again sold down their collective net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday. At the same time, commercial traders, or hedgers, covered a significant portion of their net short position.  All of this was based on the weekly Commitments of Traders report from the Commodity … Read More

The all-items Consumer Price Index, a measure of economy-wide inflation, increased by 0.3% from November to December before seasonal adjustment, up 7.0% from December 2020, the USDA’s Economic Research Service said Thursday. The CPI for all food increased 0.5% from November to December, and food prices were 6.3% higher than in December 2020. The level … Read More