Farmer sentiment improved markedly in August as the monthly Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose 26 points to a reading of 144, from a month earlier, a university release said. The improvement was the result of rising perceptions regarding current conditions and especially, better expectations for the future, the university said. The Ag Economy … Read More

For many live cattle futures investors, the market outlook has turned bearish, but it’s possible the rally can be revived. What started in June as a supply led rally morphed into a demand-led push into a mid-August double top on daily price charts that turned speculators bearish.  Part of this was seasonal, a market analyst … Read More

Large commodity investment funds, known as managed money, continued to buy live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday, even though the most-active Oct contract moved lower. The data came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. Managed money’s new collective net long live cattle position amounted to 60,546 contracts, … Read More

US total red meat production is back above last year but probably not enough to make up for what was lost to COVID-19 packing plant closures, a market analyst said.   WEEKLY TOTAL RED MEAT PRODUCTION UP   Weekly federally inspected red meat production last week was pegged by the USDA at 1.098 billion pounds, … Read More

Data and anecdotal indications, say the COVID backlog of fed cattle is rapidly diminishing and may be nearly cleaned up, said Oklahoma State University Agricultural Economist Derrell Peel, in a newsletter to Extension Agents called Cow/Calf Corner. Going forward, the one-million-head decrease in feedlot placements in February, March and April suggests front-end feedlot supplies will … Read More

Pending Commodity Futures Trading Commission approval, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., will amend the live cattle and feeder cattle futures contracts on Oct. 5, expanding initial margins and linking expanded margins in both, a CME Group announcement said. Daily price limits for live cattle futures will be expanded to $0.040 a pound from the current … Read More

Total US red meat supplies in freezers on July 31 were up about 1% at 948.398 million pounds from the previous month but down around 15% from last year, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said Monday in its monthly Cold Storage report. Total frozen poultry supplies at the end of July were up about … Read More