USDA’s semi-annual cattle report was issued today. The inventory of all cattle and calves in the U.S. as of 1 January was 86,155,300 head, slightly below—or about 316,900 head fewer than—the 86,472,200 head on 1 January 2025.
This year showed the seventh consecutive annual decline since 2019. Ultimately, that puts the cattle herd down 2 percent from the previous low point in 2014. The total cattle-on-feed inventory for all size feedlots is 13,847,900 head, which is 97 percent of last year. The biggest drop was recorded in Texas, with just 91 percent of last year. Cattle in the pipeline, or those grazing on small grain pasture in the Southern Plains (three-state total of Kansas, Oklahoma, and...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices dropped sharply with traffic flowing through the Strait of Hormuz. There were reports that Iran was behind an attack on a cargo ship near the coast of Oman, which would be a violation of the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran. Pr...
On Wednesday, the White House submitted a national security supplemental spending request for $87.6 billion. The majority of the request includes funding for the conflict in the Middle East, but there are agricultural provisions as well. The supplemental funding package includes more than $11 b...
Can we really expect a bushel of corn to carry an environmental passport throughout the entire food system? One that reliably documents its carbon footprint, biodiversity impacts, water use, soil carbon, and other environmental attributes all the way from the farm field to the consumer? This is...
