World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Roundup: North American Beef and Pork Forecast

The U.S. beef cow herd stabilized somewhat in 2024. The average culling rate was 10.5 percent, but with a beef cow herd of 28 million, the cull rate would have to be around 9 percent – or less – and heifer retention must increase in order to enter into an expansion phase.   Holding back heifer retention is the current record price level for feeder cattle; producers are more than willing to take advantage of those record prices than to invest in future expansion. For many operations, current production risks outweigh potential future returns. April prices for medium to large-frame feeder cattle between 600 and 650 pounds are $290/cwt. Steer prices are projected to reach $205.51/cwt for the year, up 10 percent, while fe...

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Jul 25 Corn closed at $4.475/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Wheat closed at $5.2925/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soybeans closed at $10.45/bushel, up $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soymeal closed at $294.7/short ton, down $0.3...

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Export Sales and Shipments for April 25-May 1, 2025.  Wheat: Net sales of 69,700 metric tons (MT) for 2024/2025 were down 3 percent from the previous week, but up noticeably from the prior 4-week average. Export shipments of 493,500 MT were unchanged from the previous week, but up 10 perce...

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Jul 25 Corn closed at $4.475/bushel, down $0.0175 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Wheat closed at $5.2925/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soybeans closed at $10.45/bushel, up $0.0575 from yesterday's close.  Jul 25 Soymeal closed at $294.7/short ton, down $0.3...

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Oilseed Highlights: Markets Turn Lower on Growing Supply Expectations

The Market  Soybean futures have mostly traded sideways over the past two weeks with trade policy uncertainty, favorable weather for the U.S. and South America, and as-expected export volumes minimizing the need for a major move. Soyoil has pulled back sharply amid weakness in crude oil an...

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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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