World Perspectives

USDA Issues New Livestock and Poultry Contracting Rule

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) released the second of a series of three new Packers and Stockyards Administration marketing rules. Officially, it is the Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Under the Packers and Stockyards Act but is informally referred to as the “scope” rule – setting out the scope of jurisdiction of the Packers and Stockyards Act, specifically with regard to “prohibiting undue prejudice, unjust discrimination, and deception to provide for clearer, more effective standards ….” This series of three rules is highly similar to those put forth by the Obama Administration in 2010 and 2016, per the 2008 farm bill which called for new regulations. After the 2010 rule,...

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livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins deteriorated further last week, extending their move into negative territory after early December’s strong profits. Margins fell another $65/head to –$140 as fed cattle prices held firm while the Choice cutout slipped nearly $2/cwt. The tightening spread reflects...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Bounces on Short-Covering and Positive Export Data

The CBOT turned higher on Monday with positive export data from USDA and a healthy dose of bottom-picking and pre-holiday short covering driving the upside action. Corn was the upside leader for the day as export shipments remain strong with foreign buyers and end-users picking up the purchase...

livestock

Cattle on Feed for Dec 2025

USDA reports U.S. Cattle on Feed down 2 percent in feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head to total 11.7 million head on December 1, 2025.  Placements in feedlots during November totaled 1.60 million head, 11 percent below 2024.  Marketings of during November totaled 1.52 million...

livestock

Livestock Industry Margins

Beef packer margins deteriorated further last week, extending their move into negative territory after early December’s strong profits. Margins fell another $65/head to –$140 as fed cattle prices held firm while the Choice cutout slipped nearly $2/cwt. The tightening spread reflects...

feed-grains soy-oilseeds wheat

Market Commentary: CBOT Bounces on Short-Covering and Positive Export Data

The CBOT turned higher on Monday with positive export data from USDA and a healthy dose of bottom-picking and pre-holiday short covering driving the upside action. Corn was the upside leader for the day as export shipments remain strong with foreign buyers and end-users picking up the purchase...

livestock

Cattle on Feed for Dec 2025

USDA reports U.S. Cattle on Feed down 2 percent in feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head to total 11.7 million head on December 1, 2025.  Placements in feedlots during November totaled 1.60 million head, 11 percent below 2024.  Marketings of during November totaled 1.52 million...

WTO Gets Trumped; Novel Remains Unusual; Cheese Diversion

WTO Gets Trumped The WTO was thrown out back on 2 April when President Trump announced his reciprocal tariffs. The tariffs totally violated U.S. obligations under the WTO but the signal was clear that the U.S. would no longer be constrained by any agreements at the WTO. Still, the Administratio...

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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.

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