World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Roundup: High Prices and China Persist

What a difference a year makes! No one will forget how out of balance cattle markets were in 2022 with margins steeply favoring the packer, while feedlots saw their margins shrink away into negative territory.  In fact, it was such a factor that we suffered through a year of misguided attempts to “fix” the market with all kinds of adjustments to cattle pricing.   However, in the past year, feedlot margins are up more than 1,300 percent, according to Sterling Beef Profit Tracker, going from $29.33/head in 2024 to $419.93/head last week. Last week’s highs were up from already high margins of $366.40/head the previous week and $278.73/head in mid-February. Packer margins, meanwhile, remained in the red with a -...

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FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 30 July)

WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “How To”...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.11/bushel, down $0.03 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.2975/bushel, down $0.0875 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.095/bushel, down $0.02 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $276.5/short ton, down $2.8...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weather Sinks Grain Bull Hopes; Cattle Hit All-Time Highs

The theme for this week’s grain markets seems to be that of favorable weather, big crops, and increasingly bearish sentiment. That was certainly the case Tuesday, as corn, soybeans, soymeal, and wheat all sold off amid fund and commercial selling. Several markets/contracts hit new contrac...

FOB Prices and Freight Rates App (Updated 30 July)

WPI Grain Prices and Freight Rate App Note: you can also visit the app directly by clicking here. Supplemental Information The section below offers a concise view of the options available in the current version of the WPI FOB Price and Freight Rate app, along with a short “How To”...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.11/bushel, down $0.03 from yesterday's close.  Sep 25 Wheat closed at $5.2975/bushel, down $0.0875 from yesterday's close.  Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.095/bushel, down $0.02 from yesterday's close.  Dec 25 Soymeal closed at $276.5/short ton, down $2.8...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Weather Sinks Grain Bull Hopes; Cattle Hit All-Time Highs

The theme for this week’s grain markets seems to be that of favorable weather, big crops, and increasingly bearish sentiment. That was certainly the case Tuesday, as corn, soybeans, soymeal, and wheat all sold off amid fund and commercial selling. Several markets/contracts hit new contrac...

Trump Trade Squeezes; USDA Staff Relocation; Scale and Trade

Trump Trade Squeezes It did not help the EU’s trade negotiating position in Scotland this past Sunday when its leaders had just come from China where President Xi Jinping rebuffed their demands for rebalancing the trading relationship. China’s overcapacity causes it to dump steel, a...

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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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