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...

Related Articles
feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.54/bushel, down $0.1325 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9725/bushel, down $0.165 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.5525/bushel, down $0.7 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $312.2/short ton, down $10...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Ags Sink on Oil Optimism, China Trade Worries; Fund Length Now a Liability

As quickly as it began, the U.S.-Iran war-fueled rally in commodity markets looks to be ending. Over the weekend and through Monday, several reports came in that highlighted political efforts to resume vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Perhaps most important was news that President T...

Administration Takes Aim at Fertilizer Prices

The war in Iran is impacting not only crude oil prices but also fertilizer prices. It is a supply issue, and thus the Treasury Department has announced new waivers for Venezuela to provide price relief and reduce the threat of shortages. It is not clear, however, whether this will be enough to...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

May 26 Corn closed at $4.54/bushel, down $0.1325 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Wheat closed at $5.9725/bushel, down $0.165 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soybeans closed at $11.5525/bushel, down $0.7 from yesterday's close.  May 26 Soymeal closed at $312.2/short ton, down $10...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Ags Sink on Oil Optimism, China Trade Worries; Fund Length Now a Liability

As quickly as it began, the U.S.-Iran war-fueled rally in commodity markets looks to be ending. Over the weekend and through Monday, several reports came in that highlighted political efforts to resume vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Perhaps most important was news that President T...

Administration Takes Aim at Fertilizer Prices

The war in Iran is impacting not only crude oil prices but also fertilizer prices. It is a supply issue, and thus the Treasury Department has announced new waivers for Venezuela to provide price relief and reduce the threat of shortages. It is not clear, however, whether this will be enough to...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

CFTC COT Report Analysis

Friday’s CFTC report showed funds further expanding long positions across the major ag futures contracts for the eighth straight week. Funds added 244,000 contracts (40 percent) to their all-ags net long position – a massive weekly increase - with buying in corn and the soy complex...

Image
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.

Search World Perspectives

Sign In to World Perspectives

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up