Total red meat supplies in US freezers on Nov. 30 were down about 2% from the previous month and down about 11% from last year, said the USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report Friday. Total pounds of beef in freezers were up about 2% from the previous month but down about 13% from last year. Frozen … Read More

Live cattle futures investors may be missing an important point contained within Friday’s USDA Cattle on Feed report, said a market analyst after the report was released. Narciso Perez, owner of Zia Ag Consultants in Albuquerque, NM, said it was apparent that cattle are stacking up in the feedlots.  But while ample supplies of fed … Read More

Going into the end of the year, it will be important for cow/calf producers and backgrounders to pay attention to feeder cattle market direction, said Andrew Griffith, agricultural economist at the University of Tennessee in a market letter. Price action the last week of December can point to action in January, Griffith said.   PRICES … Read More

Lower live cattle futures prices have been discouraging cattle owners from locking in prices using forward contracts or futures, said Matthew Diersen, risk and business management specialist at South Dakota State University in a Livestock Marketing Information Center letter called In The Cattle Markets. Pasture forage or water can run low.  Other feed supplies may … Read More

The number of cattle populating feedlots in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada, on Dec. 1 was up from November and the 2017-2021 average but very near last year’s Dec. 1 count, according to data collected by CanFax, a private advisory group and compiled and released by the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver, Col. CanFax collects … Read More

A two-year study by Oklahoma State University researchers implied that extruded Dried Distillers Grains cube supplementation during grazing did not affect subsequent feedlot performance negatively and tended to result in higher carcass quality grade. A paper by OSU Animal and Food Scientist Paul Beck said, “with fewer days on feed in the feedlot positively related … Read More

Large commodity index funds, known as managed money, continued to sell live cattle futures in the week ended Tuesday as cattle owners reduced their net short positions. The information came from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly Commitments of Traders report on Friday.   FUNDS LIQUIDATE LONGS   As of Tuesday, managed money had a … Read More