Large commodity funds, called managed money, continued to divest themselves of nearby live cattle positions during the week ended Tuesday, June 28, taking them to the lowest net long position in almost five months. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in its weekly Commitments Of Traders report, also said commercial traders, those who actually handle the … Read More

Forage availability could go up this winter as more acres of grass and alfalfa hay are harvested than last year. According to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Acreage report Thursday, farmers and ranchers intend to harvest 56.127 million acres of grass or alfalfa hay.  This is up 1.69 million, or 3.10%, from 54.437 million … Read More

Live cattle prices are working lower, an event Andrew Griffith, agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee calls “the summer wall.” Griffith added in a weekly comment that prices are hitting this wall hard as feedlots pull cattle forward at a time when cash cattle prices struggle seasonally.  Fed cattle are coming to market in … Read More

World markets continue to spin with the what-ifs of the unexpected Brexit vote in Britain on Thursday. That is mostly because no one has any idea of where this will go and what an EU minus the UK will look like, nor do they have any idea of how many more countries will divorce themselves … Read More

The difference between choice and select wholesale beef prices is narrowing as quickly as it widened, accelerating a seasonal decline, as the percentage of choice carcasses to select remains historically high. Last week, the choice/select spread was reported by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service at $18.40 per cwt, down $4.59, or 20.0%, from $22.99 the previous … Read More

Cattle and beef markets likely will consider the Cattle-On-Feed report as only slightly bearish to neutral, but there still is reason to worry about meat supplies. The major meats of beef and pork in cold storage showed declines from April, but this is normal.  Total red meats on ice also showed a seasonal tendency to … Read More

A soaring US dollar in the wake of Thursday’s vote by British citizens to secede from the European Union will hamper US export efforts, which could be bad to very bad for the US economy as a whole. It all will depend on how long the greenback remains elevated in relation to other world currencies. … Read More