USDA released its monthly cattle on feed report today showing a total inventory of cattle and calves in feed yards of 11.9 million head on 1 November, which is slightly (25,000 head) below last year.
All categories were well aligned with the pre-report expectations - another sign that cattle markets are back in balance, except that there was a wide range of placement guesstimates, from 99 percent to 105 percent of last year. With the average guess at 102 percent, however, it’s clear there was a consensus around placements. As we’ve noted before, the pre-report estimate is based on the Olympic average (i.e., eliminating the high and the low before calculating the average) of the various analysts’ forecasts. The ave...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets got a surprise with a corn yield of 181.2 bushels/acre in the October WASDE, above the average estimate of 177.6 bushels/acre and up from USDA’s September estimate of 178.5 bushels/acre. Although stronger demand is expected to absorb some of the addit...
Key Takeaways: On Friday afternoon, President Trump announced that Russia will “immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel” to the United States. The deal, typical of this administration, is light on details but promises an additional 500,000 tons in November and 1 m...
The USDA has lowered its 2026 red meat production forecasts slightly while forecasting a slight increase in broiler production. Beef is now projected at 24.802 billion pounds, 75 million pounds less than in September. Cow slaughter is expected to be up; however, this will be offset by lower ste...
