The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service this week began enhancing its livestock mandatory reporting for cattle by publishing a new Weekly Fed Cattle Comprehensive Report and revising the National Weekly Direct Slaughter Cattle report. The cattle industry has seen a significant shift from traditional negotiated transactions to alternative marketing arrangements like formula pricing over the past … Read More

Total red meat supplies in US freezers on June 30 were down 3% from the previous month and down 7% from last year, which could lend support to cattle and hog futures on Tuesday. The USDA revealed the storage levels in its monthly Cold Storage report Monday. Total pounds of beef in cold storage were … Read More

All cattle and calves in the US as of July 1 totaled 102.6 million head, up 4.4 million, or 4.48%, from 98.2 million on July 1, 2015. Comparisons to July 1, 2016, are not available because budget constraints then kept the USDA from publishing a mid-year cattle inventory report.  And, market analysts declined efforts by … Read More

Monthly retail all-beef prices are on the rise, separating themselves farther from pork and chicken prices, showing that consumers are willing to pay more for the product. The long-term trend also shows a continuing increase in average retail beef prices in comparison with what consumers pay for pork or chicken. For June, the average all … Read More

Steer calf prices are not measuring up, and since early May have declined along the path carved out by last year’s price plunge. Average weekly prices paid for 400- to 500-pound, medium and large, No. 1 steers in the Southern Plains have held below the 2011-2015 average all year and now appear to be on … Read More

The USDA expects beef, pork and poultry disappearance to increase next year, driven largely by production increases, but also by changes in trade. The changes in expectations for beef, pork and poultry were outlined in the USDA’s monthly Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook from the Economic Research Service.   BEEF   Beef’s per capita disappearance … Read More

Beef and pork demand appear to be declining, even though per-capita consumption of both is rising and expected to climb even more next year. The Livestock Marketing Information Center uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the USDA’s Economic Research Service to arrive at its own retail fresh beef and pork demand indices.  … Read More