Cattle cycles are measured from low point to low point, which means that the current cycle started in 2014, peaked in 2019, and was ongoing in 2023.
Thus, a key question is: will record cattle prices (so far, and projected by USDA) in 2024 trigger an expansion of the cattle herd and start a new cattle cycle? Looking back at 2023, cattle prices hit records but feed, forage and financial, and fertilizer costs were all higher than typical levels and the beef herd continued its contraction as producer margins did not keep pace with cattle prices. As of 1 January 2024, the U.S. cattle herd dropped to 87.2 million head, the lowest since 1951. Reductions were seen at virtually every level of the cattle supply compared to the beginn...
What You Need to Know Today: There has already been a strong run of flash soybean sales announcements in recent weeks, but more than 1.4 MMT reported this morning is an exceptionally large single-day total with major implications for the market. If the sales to China and unknown destinations w...
On Friday, at 6:57 AM, President Donald Trump announced, via a social media post, a 90-day window during which up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef could be imported outside of tariff-rate quotas—a move aimed at bringing down costs for American consumers. This is the secon...
