The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service predicted in a report that Brazilian cattle slaughter will decline next year because of a forecasted start of the reversion of the cattle cycle. Producers there likely will start retaining cattle in 2025, driving calf prices upwards, the FAS said. Also, record beef exports were forecast for 2024 and 2025, … Read More

The August USDA Cattle on Feed report, combined with other USDA data, suggests a more robust US beef demand than is implied by other metrics, a market analyst said by email Tuesday. Steer and heifer slaughter and carcass weights are up significantly from a year ago, yet the market provides enough margin for a higher … Read More

Large commodity index funds, known as managed money, reduced their collective net long live cattle position in the week ended last Tuesday, Aug. 20. At the same time, hedgers trimmed their total net short position, according to data from the weekly Commitments of Traders report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Friday.   MANAGED MONEY … Read More

Total red meat supplies in freezers on July 31 were down about 3% from the previous month and from last year, according to the monthly Cold Storage report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Friday. Total frozen poultry supplies were up about 2% from the previous month but down about 5% from a year … Read More

Canada’s rail lockout, which shut down the country’s two largest railroads and halted all rail shipments crossing the US border, has huge implications for the US economy, news outlets said. News reports indicated the main issues were “working conditions like shift scheduling and fatigue, which Teamsters spokesmen lumped together under “safety.”  Pay does not seem … Read More

Partly in response to lower-than-average placements for most of this year, Canada’s total number of cattle on feed continued to drop in this month’s report. CanFax is a division of the Canadian Cattle Association, located in Calgary, Alberta.  Staff there collect feeding information from feedlots in Alberta and Saskatchewan. CanFax then shares the total on … Read More

USDA’s reported weekly boxed beef cutout value is holding a little higher than last year and the previous five-year average, even though fed steer and heifer dressed weights also are higher than the two previous benchmarks. In addition, the weekly percent of beef that was graded choice in the total graded slaughter mix is up … Read More