U.S. beef production has been falling but pork output is rising. The higher price of beef has made the consumption of competing animal proteins like pork and poultry more attractive. Thus, pork prices initially got a boost out of the extra demand created by the shortfall in beef availability. USDA’s forecast calls for beef production and exports to continue falling, as its price continues to rise. However, the spillover in the pork market recedes next year, when pork prices are forecast to fall, and the growth in pork exports continues to rise. The drop in beef output would be greater except feedlots are incentivized to increase the weight of the animals on hand. Average slaughter weights of hogs is also increasing. U.S. pork e...
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...
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.