Packer Margins Deep Red; Beef Herd Down in 2012 Beef packer margins last week sunk to -$125.50, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker, with feedyard margins at -$1.77 per head. Cattle futures closed lower today with some profit taking before Friday's Cattle Inventory report. March feeder cattle were down 1.375, April down 0.925 and May down 0.975.Industry expectations, however, are that beef cattle numbers will be down as of 1 January 2012. Last year inventory was 92.6 million head. The average guesstimate is a 1.6 percent drop in the cattle herd, for a total of 91.1 million head. That is on par with 1958, when cattle inventory was 91.176 million head. The difference is that average carcass weight was 575 pounds in 1958; the 20...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
From WPI Consulting
Infrastructure investment due diligence
On behalf of a Canadian oilseed processer WPI's team provided market analysis, econometric modeling and financial due diligence in support of a $24 million-dollar investment in a Ukrainian crush plant. Consistent with WPI's findings, local production to supply the plant and the facility's output have expanded exponentially since the investment. WPI has conducted parallel work on behalf of U.S., South American and European clients, both private and public, in the agri-food space.