Cattle feeding margins went up last week, compared to the week before, but beef packer margins went up even more, although both are in the black, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker, from Sterling Marketing Inc., and published by Drovers. The calculated unhedged feedlot margin for fed steers last week was 95.80 a head, … Read More

An influx of government payments and higher prices for agricultural commodities provided greater support for farm finances in the third quarter and seemed to limit demand for financing, said the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in a release. Despite some improvements in the agricultural economy, farm income and repayment rates remained low during the … Read More

Total stocks of red meat in US freezers on Oct. 31 were up from Sep. 30 but were down from Oct. 31, 2019, as total poultry stocks on ice fell from a month earlier and a year earlier, the USDA said in its monthly Cold Storage Report Monday. Frozen beef stocks were up from a … Read More

Large commodity investment firms, called managed money, increased their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Thursday as cattle owners raised their net short position. The information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.   FUNDS LONGER LIVE CATTLE   Managed money’s new long live … Read More

Government interventions taken to stabilize the financial system after the 2008 financial crisis were controversial at the time because of perceived high costs to taxpayers, but the cost of bank deposit suspensions likely would have been much worse, economists said in a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City release. The study was done by Qian … Read More

Beef demand has remained remarkably strong since the pandemic started in March, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist, in a letter to Extension agents called Cow/Calf Corner. The first half of 2020 saw unparalleled disruptions in beef supply and demand, Peel said.  But since July, steer and heifer slaughter has averaged … Read More

True to form, Canada’s cattle feedlot population rose in October to a Nov. 1 total of 940,248 head, according to data from CanFax that was compiled and published by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. CanFax, a private market advisory firm, collects the data from Alberta and Saskatchewan feedlots for its monthly report.  Most … Read More