US commercial red meat production totaled 5.024 billion pounds in October, up 250 million, or 5.24% from the 4.774 billion produced in October 2023, the USDA said Thursday in its Livestock Slaughter report. October’s commercial red meat production also was up 573 million pounds, or 12.9%, from September’s 4.451 billion pounds. The totals included beef, … Read More

The October USDA Cattle on Feed report estimated heifers made up nearly 40% of all cattle on feed, a signal of producer intentions about retaining heifers as replacements, said Rob Ziegler, Extension specialist at the University of Wyoming. Writing for the Livestock Marketing Information Center, Ziegler said consensus is that the heifer mix needs to … Read More

In the latest trading week, it was better, on average, for cattle feeders to have sold on a dressed formula basis than on any other program, according to data from the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver. If selling on a live basis, the data showed that cattle feeders did best last week by selling … Read More

Agricultural credit conditions in the Federal Reserve’s 10th District continued to deteriorate at a gradual pace in the third quarter, said Economists Francisco Scott and Ty Kreitman in a report Monday. The eastern portion of the district lies in the Great Plains and includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and the western third of Missouri.  The western … Read More

In the week ended Tuesday, managed money, or large commodity index firms, continued buying long live cattle futures positions for the eighth straight week, according to data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In its weekly Commitments of Traders report Friday, the CFTC also said commercial traders, or those with cash-market positions to protect, also … Read More

11-15-24 Discussing the difference between some growth performance measures for cattle, Mark Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension beef cattle breeding specialist, said in a recent article that the Beef Improvement Federation defines Weight per Day of Age and Average Daily Gain this way: –WDA – Weight of an individual divided by its age in days. … Read More

An International Monetary Fund blog by Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas said it looked like the global battle against inflation has largely been won. After peaking at 9.4% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2022, the IMF projects headline inflation will fall to 3.5% by the end of next year, slightly below the average during the two decades … Read More