The US hog herd continues to grow, a fact that concerns cattle producers and feeders as the extra meat must find a home, potentially undermining beef values. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service last week released its Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report, which revealed that the US inventory of all hogs and pigs on Dec. … Read More

Friday’s USDA Cold Storage report showed that total meat supplies in US freezers on Nov. 30 were down about 6% from a month earlier but up close to 4% from a year ago. Total pounds of beef in freezers were down slightly from Oct. 31 but up about 6% from last year. Frozen pork supplies … Read More

Managed money, or large commodity investment firms, raised their collective net long position in live cattle futures during the week ended Tuesday to 83,961 contracts, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. Managed money’s new live cattle position was up 10,549 contracts, or 14.4%, from 73,412 contracts the … Read More

12-21-18 – The US Food and Drug Administration reported this week that annual domestic sales and distribution of medically important antimicrobials approved for use in feed-producing animals declined by 33% in 2017. The FDA also said feed use for disease prevention dropped sharply last year to less than a million pounds. The data came from … Read More

The US beef cow herd could be higher in the semi-annual report in January, in spite of increased cow and heifer slaughter this year, said the Livestock Marketing Information Center in a letter to Extension agents. The LMIC letter said its current estimate for the Jan. 1 beef cow herd count was somewhere north of … Read More

Kansas feedlot closeouts, or sales of slaughter-ready cattle to packer buyers, continued to decline in October, but the rate of monthly decline leveled somewhat. The Livestock Marketing Information Center released its findings after extrapolating and compiling the data collected by the Kansas State University Extension service gathered from select feedlots around the state. The average … Read More

Retail beef prices were strong in November in spite of increased meat supplies, said Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel in a letter to Extension agents. November average choice retail beef price was $5.91 a pound, up from $5.84 in October and 1.8% above the November 2017 price of $5.81, according to … Read More