World Perspectives
livestock

Cattle on Feed Report: Record February Placements

USDA released the monthly Cattle on Feed report today. As has been the case more often than not since mid-2023, actual placements have exceeded the pre-report estimates.  Coming into today’s report the consensus estimate among analysts was for placements to be 106 percent of last year’s total. As WPI wrote yesterday, weather last year was expected to have an impact. Weather conditions kept a lid on February 2023 placements, and 2024 January weather led to fewer cattle being placed, deferring them into February. As WPI wrote after the 1 February Cattle on Feed report, as January’s “wet and muddy conditions have improved, it is likely that February placements have rebounded.” And rebound they did. Actual...

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Market Commentary: Grain Futures Buying Demand; Livestock Futures Buying Time

Bears were in control of the CBOT again on Monday with technical pressure and bearish fundamental headlines driving prices lower. Soybeans and wheat were the downside leaders for the day as funds accelerated their exit from long positions in these markets amid the chart weakness. Corn futures s...

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Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.3975/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.2075/bushel, down $0.085 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $10.7175/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $303.5/short ton, up $1 fr...

Farmer Bridge Assistance Program Early Details

The USDA will base the $12 billion in farmer payments it recently announced under the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program on 2025 planted acreage. The department announced that acreage reports, as of 19 December, by 5 p.m., should be “accurate.” Payment rates will be announced th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Grain Futures Buying Demand; Livestock Futures Buying Time

Bears were in control of the CBOT again on Monday with technical pressure and bearish fundamental headlines driving prices lower. Soybeans and wheat were the downside leaders for the day as funds accelerated their exit from long positions in these markets amid the chart weakness. Corn futures s...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.3975/bushel, down $0.01 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.2075/bushel, down $0.085 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $10.7175/bushel, down $0.05 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $303.5/short ton, up $1 fr...

Farmer Bridge Assistance Program Early Details

The USDA will base the $12 billion in farmer payments it recently announced under the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program on 2025 planted acreage. The department announced that acreage reports, as of 19 December, by 5 p.m., should be “accurate.” Payment rates will be announced th...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Bear, Bear, Every Where a Bear

Today was National Poinsettia Day, a plant that is supposed to symbolize goodwill and success but that is only true for the bears today.  There was red all over Chicago and New York as investors counted their blessings of too much grain and too much risk. The only thing rising in value was...

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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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