The big news on the livestock side of today’s WASDE was USDA’s reduction in the fed cattle price forecast.
Prices for 2024 were trimmed by $3/cwt and USDA dropped its forecast for 2025 annual average prices by $5/cwt from $191/cwt last month to $186 this month. The supply and demand situation hasn’t changed significantly, but prices have been bearish. Last week was the first time since the first week of March 2023 (when prices exceeded those from the same week in 2015) that cattle prices fell below the previous weekly record.
The forecast for beef production was increased. The WASDE cited higher cow slaughter and heavier cattle weights in the second half of the year. Slaughter weights are up about 30 pounds from last...
Key Market Insights Macros: Inflation isn’t cooling — it’s moving higher again. March PCE inflation (Personal Consumption Expenditures index — the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation) rose 0.7 percent month-over-month, pushing the annual rate to 3.5 percent, the h...
An amendment to the U.S. House farm bill, aiming to remove the Save Our Bacon Act language in Section 12006 that would have stripped language to prohibit California’s Proposition 12, Massachusetts’ Question 3, and up to 500 state agricultural laws across the country, was blocked by...
WPI has officially launched Transportation Perspectives as a standalone weekly report separate from our Ag Perspectives articles and analysis. Current Ag Perspectives subscribers will have gratis access to the report through 16 April 2026. Please email us or subscr...
