USDA will release its Cattle on Feed report tomorrow; the consensus pre-report analysts’ estimate is for the inventory of cattle on feed to be 101 percent of the prior year. This would be the sixth consecutive month that inventories were equal to or larger than the previous year. Prior to that, from September 2022 to September 2023 feedlot inventories were below year ago levels.
The analysts’ pre-report estimates have marketings at 104 percent of last year and placements at 106 percent of last year, the latter coming in a range of 103 to 109 percent of 2023. For both, note that this is a leap year with an extra day in February. Likewise for placements, feeder cattle imports are running ahead of last year.
However, as...
What You Need to Know Today: The G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of crude oil and fuel reserves over four months, with a substantial diesel release front-loaded into the first 20 days. The announcement initially pushed crude oil lower on Friday, although it later recovered a portion o...
In a recent social media post, R-CALF unveiled its latest cattle market plan: “contracts that bind producers before establishing a base price, then tie that price to future negotiated cash transactions, should be prohibited.” That proposal aligns with recent legislation by Represent...
Key Takeaways: The recent pearl-clutching from parts of the beef industry regarding the loss of the daily Kansas fed cattle negotiated trade pricing report is overwrought and ignores the fact that the direction was readily apparent. The shift away from negotiated trade has been well docu...