Although beef exports linger behind last year’s record pace, according to the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) last week, export value in August was the second highest for the year at $486.2 million....More

More specifically, analysts with the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) explained Friday, “Available offerings of true yearling feeder cattle sold mostly steady to as much as $3 higher. Calf prices were uneven and extremely regionalized with the best demand noted in the Oklahoma wheat pasture country and the Northwestern Plains. T...More

“Can the market attain new levels next spring or is it consolidating into an established trading range?,” wonders  Nevil Speer, University of Western Kentucky, in his monthly Market Profile that you can find ......More

Between calf buyers taking a breather to catch up on calf health challenges and finish farming, prices traded across a wide range....More

“It is fair to say the drought of 2012 caused average returns for a cow-calf operation to decline by about $125/cow compared to the no-drought situation,” said analysts with the Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC) last week....More

It would be easy to blame the bearishness of this past week’s outside and futures markets for calf prices that were weak to $4 lower. But analysts with the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) suggest that the wider temperature swings and seasonally increasing calf health challenges were the primary drivers....More

Logic suggests that the trade should regard Friday’s Cattle on Feed report as bullish. August placements (2.0 million head) were 11% less than a year earlier and the second lowest August placement since the National Agriculture Statistics Service began the data series  in 1996....More

If the beef industry permanently loses the consumer demand, production and cost efficiencies associated with lean finely textured beef (LFTB) it won’t be due to a lack of effort from the folks at Nebraska-based Beef Products, Inc. (BPI). You recall the misinformation about LFTB scattered by an ABC report earlier this year. That report ignited a firestorm of consumer backlash, ultimately forcing BPI—the leading provider of LFTB—to shutter three of its four facilities and putting 700 folks or so out of work....More

Bullish outside markets and the sharply lower dollar helped support cattle futures and beef prices last week. Feeder cattle prices traded firm to $4 higher across the country, according to the Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) Friday....More

This past week, the markets were all about hope, courtesy of slow-moving rains spawned by Hurricane Isaac that made it to parts of the parched Midwest. Along with improving attitudes, the moisture boosted prospects for fall and winter forage, including cereal grains like ryegrass and wheat pasture. Keeping in mind the lighter auction receipts due to Labor Day, yearling feeder cattle sold mostly steady to $2 higher, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Calves trended firm to $3 higher....More

As beef struggles to hold consumer demand with retail prices necessarily at historic highs, it will also have to contend with an onslaught of pork, at least in the near term....More