The weekly wholesale price spread between fresh 90% lean boneless beef prices and their 50% lean counterpart continues to grow as 90% lean product holds its own as 50% product declines. What’s puzzling is that 90% lean beef is holding near its record high so well while prices for other beef cuts are fading. In … Read More

Feedlots are doing everything they can to maintain feedlot inventories, but they can only do so much in the face of declining herd numbers, said Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension livestock marketing specialist, in a letter called Cow-Calf Corner. As feeder steer and heifer numbers dwindle with smaller and smaller calf crops, feedlot managers … Read More

Large commodity index funds, called managed money, turned to buying live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday as hedgers sold short, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday.   MANAGED MONEY BUYS CATTLE       Tuesday, managed money had a collective net long live cattle futures … Read More

So far, avian influenza A (H5N1) has not spread to humans, even though it has made the jump to cows in at least eight states, but beef consumer response to such an event is unknown. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement this week discussing the agency’s actions and the risk of … Read More

Total red meat supplies in freezers March 31 were down about 1% from the previous month and down about 12% from last year, the USDA said in Wednesday’s monthly Cold Storage report. Total frozen poultry supplies on March 31 were up slightly from February but were down about 6% from a year ago.   BEEF … Read More

Global goods trade was expected to pick up gradually this year following a contraction in 2023 that was driven by the lingering effects of high energy prices and inflation, WTO economists said in a new forecast this month. The volume of world merchandise trade could increase by 2.6% in 2024 and 3.3% in 2025 after … Read More

One reason fed steer prices are fading may be because the ones being sold to packers are larger, producing more meat per head and reducing the slaughter need. A look at USDA data compiled and published by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver shows that carcass weights of slaughtered steers and heifers remain well … Read More