USDA released its June quarterly Hogs and Pigs report today. Pre-report expectation was for a total inventory of 73.6 million head – which would have been the smallest September inventory since 2017 - but the actual inventory was 74.3 million, slightly higher than September 2022 and up 2 percent from June.
The bottom line is that the total inventory of hogs and pigs grew over last year, which may be somewhat of a surprise, but the growth in the herd from June to September - which is a typical seasonal pattern - grew at a smaller pace than the average of 3 percent since 2015.
Notably, in the June report, June to August intended farrowings were 2.942 million head – the actual was 2.949, very consiste...
What You Need to Know Today: The hot, dry weather forecast continues to drive strength in grain futures with corn and soybeans hitting another day of strong gains. Monday’s Crop Progress and Conditions data were in line with market expectations and showed relatively few concerns for the...
Yesterday we wrote about the Q1 GDP numbers and the June employment reports in an article entitled Real GDP for Q1 Relying on AI Buildout, Held Back by Consumer Spending. That article mentioned that consumer spending had become a drag on GDP. Nonetheless, real GDP in Q1 was revised upward to 2...
Key Takeaways: The Middle East and North Africa's arid climate and limited water resources have created a structural dependence on imported wheat. Government wheat tenders in major importing countries serve as important benchmarks for global trade, providing insight into exporter competitivene...