USDA released its monthly cattle on feed report today showing a total inventory of cattle and calves in feed yards of 11.9 million head on 1 November, which is slightly (25,000 head) below last year.
All categories were well aligned with the pre-report expectations - another sign that cattle markets are back in balance, except that there was a wide range of placement guesstimates, from 99 percent to 105 percent of last year. With the average guess at 102 percent, however, it’s clear there was a consensus around placements. As we’ve noted before, the pre-report estimate is based on the Olympic average (i.e., eliminating the high and the low before calculating the average) of the various analysts’ forecasts. The ave...
What You Need to Know Today: Russia rejected calls for a ceasefire in the Black Sea, including a proposal to halt attacks on civilian shipping that could help restore grain flows from Ukrainian ports. Tyson Foods announced plans to permanently close its Joslin, Illinois, beef processing facili...
The big news in the cattle markets yesterday was Tyson Foods’ move to close two more beef plants. One of them, the Joslin, Illinois, plant was shuttered immediately after the announcement. The other, in Eagle Mountain, Utah, is a case-ready plant that does not slaughter cattle. Tyson also...
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on Wednesday. In July, the CPI rose 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted, and rose 3.4 percent over the last 12 months, not seasonally adjusted. The index for all items less food and energy, or the “core” infla...
