World Perspectives
livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins pulled back last week but remained positive for just the sixth time this year. Margins fell about $64/head due to weaker beef prices (exemplified by a $10/cwt decline in the Choice cutout) that offset a modest $1.80/cwt decline in fed cattle prices. The drop credit for packers also worsened slightly and contributed to the weaker margins. Packer margins increasingly look threatened as the beef markets follow their seasonal pattern lower while cattle prices surge from the bullish Cattle on Feed report and the outlook for an extended suspension of feeder cattle imports from Mexico.  Feedlot profit margins were mixed last week ...

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Market Commentary: Snow Falls Across Midwest, Commodities Fall Across CBOT

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Mercosur Regional Analysis

WHEAT The Argentine wheat harvest advanced nearly 14 percentage points this past week, reaching 30 percent of the total area. Good weather accelerated maturation in some fields at the same time forecasts of weekend rainfall pushed harvesters to move quickly. Yields continue to surprise, with so...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: Snow Falls Across Midwest, Commodities Fall Across CBOT

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

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feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Summary of Futures

Mar 26 Corn closed at $4.45/bushel, down $0.0275 from yesterday's close.  Mar 26 Wheat closed at $5.35/bushel, down $0.035 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soybeans closed at $11.28/bushel, down $0.0975 from yesterday's close.  Jan 26 Soymeal closed at $314.6/short ton, down $4.1...

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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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