Total US red meat supplies in cold storage on Feb. 28 were down slightly from a month earlier but were up 1% from last year, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service’s monthly Cold Storage report said Thursday. Total poultry supplies in freezers at the end of February were up 6% from the previous month and … Read More

Total cow and heifer slaughter is boosting beef production, but it also may be pointing to collective producer decisions to begin cutting herd sizes, or at least to top out growth. Data from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service shows total cow slaughter up from last year and the 2012-2016 average.  What’s more, beef and dairy cow … Read More

The pool of available feeder cattle in the Plains may be diminished by previous high monthly placements, which in turn, possibly were fueled by dry pasture conditions. Based on the latest USDA Cattle on Feed report, net feedlot placements in January were 3.7% higher than last year and were expected to be up 4.2% in … Read More

Stock index futures declined Monday, and amid the reasons among market analysts was expectations of a hike in the fed funds rate by the Federal Open Market Committee on Wednesday. Among other things, the FOMC raises or lowers the base interest rate to help control inflation, either to speed it up or to slow it … Read More

Large commodity investment funds, called managed money, trimmed its net long live cattle position for the third straight week during the week ended Tuesday. The data was released Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday. The CFTC said managed money’s net long live cattle futures position Tuesday … Read More

The latest analysis of national and global agricultural trends from the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute indicates little change in net farm income this year and a slight increase in 2019. This projects to about $60 billion for the third straight year this year. Each March, economists with the Food and … Read More

Import data for all of 2017 shows the US is a relatively small importer of meat and dairy products, which is consistent with past years, the USDA’s Economic Research Service said in its monthly Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook Wednesday.   CATTLE/BEEF   In 2017, US beef imports were 11.3% of total domestic disappearance.  In … Read More