World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Roundup: Beef Overview

Little to no action has been reported in the cash markets and asking prices are back at $190/cwt and higher. Cattle supply numbers are tighter in the south than in the north, and carcass weights took a pause from the steep rise that has taken them to all-time highs this year. The latest report shows carcass weights at 924 pounds, down 2 pounds from the prior week but 30 pounds heavier than last year. The fed cattle weights (combined steer and heifer) can easily be influenced when the proportion of steers to heifers in the weekly slaughter changes. With considerable scrutiny on searching for signs of herd rebuilding and heifer retention, a drop in carcass weights would seem to signal heifers are still being marketed. Last week’s slaught...

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livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins remained deeply negative, with estimated net losses at -$185/head, little changed from the prior week. Rising boxed beef values continued to lag gains in fed cattle prices, keeping gross margins compressed despite incremental support from carcass weights and drop values. Rel...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Energy Supports Soyoil, Soybeans; Weak Dollar Pushes Wheat Higher

Grain trade at the CBOT was mixed Tuesday with higher energy values supporting soyoil and soybeans while a weaker dollar and some commercial buying supported wheat futures. Corn was the laggard for the day as concerns about ethanol production in the U.S. during the two weeks of severe cold weig...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.265/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.2325/bushel, up $0.0075 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.6725/bushel, up $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $294/short ton, down $0.3 f...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins remained deeply negative, with estimated net losses at -$185/head, little changed from the prior week. Rising boxed beef values continued to lag gains in fed cattle prices, keeping gross margins compressed despite incremental support from carcass weights and drop values. Rel...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Energy Supports Soyoil, Soybeans; Weak Dollar Pushes Wheat Higher

Grain trade at the CBOT was mixed Tuesday with higher energy values supporting soyoil and soybeans while a weaker dollar and some commercial buying supported wheat futures. Corn was the laggard for the day as concerns about ethanol production in the U.S. during the two weeks of severe cold weig...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.265/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.2325/bushel, up $0.0075 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soybeans closed at $10.6725/bushel, up $0.055 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Soymeal closed at $294/short ton, down $0.3 f...

Congressional Letter on Buy-Up Coverage Rule

USDA’s Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) published a new rule for crop insurance late last year, the Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) rule that eliminates buy-up coverage for prevented planting policies. The rule proposes to: Increase premium subsidies from 5 to 10 crop...

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From WPI Consulting

Communicating importance of value-added products

Facing increasing pressure to quantify the value of export promotion efforts to investors, a U.S. industry organization retained WPI to develop a quantitative model that better communicated the importance of exports. The resulting model concluded that value-added meat exports contributed $0.45 cents per bushel to the price of corn, increasing support for that sector’s financial support of WPI’s client. In addition to serving the red meat industry with this type of analysis, WPI has generated similar deliverables for the U.S. soybean and poultry/egg industries.

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