Today’s WASDE showed USDA’s red meat and broiler production forecast up from last month reflecting a faster than expected recovery from slaughter plant shutdowns, backlogs and reconfigured operations. Slaughter was down the last week of May due to Memorial Day, but last week rebounded by more than 25 percent for both hogs and cattle. The WASDE revised last month’s total beef, pork and broilers production forecast for the year to be slightly above (0.05 percent) 2019. The 2021 forecast is 2.6 percent above the 2020 projected output.
Cattle slaughter is still 6.7 percent below last year’s pace year-to-date, but beef production is down less at 4.4 percent based on heavier weights. Total weekly cattle slaughter...
What You Need to Know Today: Traders are increasingly focused on next Wednesday’s August WASDE report, with corn and soybean yield estimates expected to drive the next major move in grain markets. Recent crop condition declines and late-July heat have increased uncertainty around USDA&rs...
Yesterday the Senate Agriculture Committee held its markup of the “skinny” farm bill, and it was derailed over Democratic opposition to plans for imposing food stamp costs on state governments. The Democrats pushed back on a provision that required states to pick up a larger share o...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s 2025/26 corn export models continue to reflect strong international demand and put the total marketing year volume slightly above USDA’s estimates. Strong old crop corn exports are offset by weaker feed and residual use, leaving ending stocks slightly ele...