Large commodity investment funds, called managed money by traders, boosted their collective net long live cattle futures position during the week ended Tuesday, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The CFTC said managed money’s new net long live cattle futures position Tuesday stood at 38,273 contracts, up 9,933, … Read More

Estimated beef packer margins expanded again last week, while cattle feeding margins remained in the red, according to Sterling Marketing Inc.’s weekly Beef Profit Tracker. The Profit Tracker, which is published by Drovers, showed estimated feedlot returns on unhedged, slaughter-ready cattle sold to packers last week at a minus $24.80 a head, compared with estimated … Read More

Current methods of keeping foreign animal diseases out of the US likely are adequate to keep African Swine Fever at bay, said David Miller, chief economist for Decision Innovation Solutions, which provides economic analysis and business development services to businesses, in an interview. Many hog market analysts and producers fear the introduction of African Swine … Read More

Strong consumer demand for choice beef appears to be a constant in the beef market now, and unless things change abruptly, and soon, wholesale prices for choice and select beef appear likely to remain inordinately wide into the new year. As of last week, the choice/select spread was at $25.00 per cwt.  This is $11.39, … Read More

Growth in farm lending at commercial banks slowed in the third quarter of 2019, yet loan volumes in the farm sector remained elevated, said the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank in a study. Following nine straight quarters of year-over-year growth and a particularly notable increase a year ago, the volume of total non-real estate farm … Read More

Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, again lengthened their collective net long live cattle futures position in the week ended Tuesday. The data comes from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report on Friday and shows that managed money on Tuesday were net long by 28,340 contracts, up 9,770, or 52.6%, … Read More

Last week, the US Federal Reserve Board released its October Beige Book update, a summary of commentary on current economic conditions by Federal Reserve District, that contained some observations about the US agricultural economy.   SIXTH DISTRICT – ATLANTA   Agricultural conditions remained mixed.  Parts of Alabama, Georgia, the Florida panhandle and Tennessee continued to … Read More