Acreage set-asides are being discussed as a farm price-support policy, yet reducing US production could lead to loss of world market share, said a group of agricultural economists from the University of Illinois and Ohio State University in a study published by Illinois farmdocdaily. World production of corn and soybeans increased significantly in the past … Read More

Large commodity investment funds, called managed money by traders, advanced their collective net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday as hedgers expanded their net short position. The information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. Managed money’s new net long live cattle futures position Tuesday … Read More

Andrew Griffith, agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee, said in a letter to Extension agents that there was a good chance that boxed beef prices had hit their seasonal low. But that didn’t mean prices were likely to break out to the upside. “If they have hit their low then there is a good … Read More

Last week, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service released its “2019 US Agricultural Export Yearbook” that provided a statistical summary of US agricultural commodity exports to the world and the US’ primary trading partners. With respect to China, the update indicated that, “In 2019, US agricultural exports to China totaled $13.8 billion, up from $9.1 billion … Read More

A 10-year study of hedged and unhedged fed cattle prices in Kansas showed that Kansas prices and the live cattle futures prices were related in the way they should be.  There is no obvious upward or downward bias in the hedged price versus unhedged, said Kansas State University Agricultural Economist Brian Coffey, on the department’s … Read More

Weekly US federally inspected beef and pork production have rebounded from their COVID-induced weekly lows and remain above last year and their respective 2014-2018 averages, but it may not be making up the difference just yet. It’s hard to tell what beef and pork production might have been at this point in the year without … Read More

The semi-annual USDA Cattle (Inventory) report Friday raised some eyebrows and produced many conversations within the cattle industry about the number of feeder cattle outside of feedlots. There doesn’t seem to be a good answer at this point, but many think the USDA got it wrong. The July Cattle report often is considered to be … Read More