Large commodity index funds increased their collective net short live cattle position during the week ended last Tuesday, while hedgers cut their net short position. It’s very possible that those large commodity index funds, called managed money, continued to sell cattle short in the week since last Tuesday when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission cut … Read More

Following a record-breaking performance in 2019, US pork exports maintained a torrid pace in January, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the US Meat Export Federation. January beef exports also were higher year-over-year, the USMEF said.   PORK EXPORTS COOL ONLY SLIGHTLY   January pork exports cooled slightly from the volume and … Read More

The weekly boxed beef cutout value of choice 600- to 900-pound carcasses is not behaving normally, although the weekly difference between USDA choice- and select-graded beef is moving along with seasonal norms. Blame it on nervousness over the economy brought on by jitters about the upcoming election, early fears of a stock-market setback after a … Read More

While wholesale beef prices are struggling to make seasonal gains, it’s too early to tell if it is because of reduced demand linked to the Covid-19 Coronavirus, said Derrell Peel, agricultural economist for Oklahoma State University, in a letter to Extension agents called Cow/Calf Corner. It is certainly possible that there has been some bearish … Read More

The USDA raised its 2020 forecast of total red meat and poultry production from last month as beef, pork and poultry production estimates all moved up. The new estimates came in the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report Tuesday.  Higher fed cattle slaughter and heavier weights, increased pork slaughter rates and a boost … Read More

Feedlot sales of fed steers to packing plants, or closeouts, in January were less than January 2019 but more than the 2014-2018 average, according to data collected by the Kansas State University Extension Service and compiled and distributed by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. The K-State Extension Service surveys select, representative feed yards … Read More

Large commodity index funds lost more faith in live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday, moving their collective position to being net short from net long, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The new position for those index funds, known in the trade as managed money, on … Read More