Yearly Archives: 2018

Date: September 17th, 2018 Only light volume to report heading into Friday afternoon for cash feedlot trade. Futures surged higher though, October finishing limit higher for the day, which should result in higher cash trade. NE saw active trade at $108 to $110 live and $172 to $175 dressed which is already steady to $2 higher than the week previous. Trade was confirmed late Friday in the South as high as $112 live. NATIONAL FEEDER & STOCKER CATTLE SUMMARY – W/E 09/14/2018 RECEIPTS: Auctions Direct Video/Internet Total This Week 184,400 60,400 44,800 289,600 Last Week 122,200 47,800 57,200 227,200 Last Year 193,100 58,100 20,800 272,000 Compared to last week, calves and yearlings sold fully steady to 5.00 higher with many major markets compared to two…

Grain and oilseed trade got some shocker numbers in the reports and market action was sharply lower in corn, actively lower in wheat and higher in beans. The biggest report focus was corn and soybean yield and production totals. Corn yield was a whopping, record bearish 181.3 bu/ac, yet ending stocks were still bullish at 1.774 bln. Soybean yield was a monster as well at 52.8 bu/ac with carryout badly bearish at 845 mln. New crop world ending stocks totals were all slightly larger than the pre-report estimates. Old crop world numbers were higher than the guesses in corn and wheat and a little lower in beans. Big picture round numbers have world wheat ending stocks down 13 mmt’s from a year ago, world soybean…

Lean hog futures had a fairly aggressive setback yesterday and the cattle complex was lower as well, but only mildly. Friday’s sharp jump in cattle and Monday’s early follow through broke some key technical barriers that are still in play on the bullish side. Cash last week moving $1 higher helped the cause as well. There’s a small bearish dilemma brewing with the product market heading south, but packer margins are still strongly positive, so I’m not overly concerned about that just yet. The other supporting factor to the meat complex is cash hog values finally finding strong support and they have shot up more than $10/cwt since the start of the month. The spread between cattle prices and hog prices, especially in the product…

Date: September 10th, 2018 Packers purchased light volume throughout the week at $107 live and $170 dressed yet had to push prices higher on Friday. Cash cattle trade firmed throughout the day to $108 live for the majority of the trade in the South, which is $1 higher than the week previous. Hog futures finished the week mixed but higher overall for the week. Cash prices spiked higher on Friday. China reported several more African swine fever outbreaks bringing the total number since early August up to thirteen in six different provinces. NATIONAL FEEDER & STOCKER CATTLE SUMMARY – W/E 08/31/2018 RECEIPTS: Auctions Direct Video/Internet Total This Week 122,200 47,800 57,200 227,200 Last Week 148,700 49,600 10,600 208,900 Last Year 126,500 40,200 11,600 178,300 Compared…

Date: August 29th, 2018 Cattle futures gave back half their gains from Monday on yesterday disappointing follow through. Lean hog futures opened higher but sellers stepped in pressuring the markets for the rest of the day with the nearby October contract touching over $3 lower in the last few minutes of trade. There have been a couple thousand of cash fed cattle trade so far this week at $106 to $108.50 live and $168 to $170 dressed, $1 to $4 lower than last week. Fed Cattle Exchange online auction scheduled for later this morning with 751 head consigned compared to last week’s 359 head of which 280 head sold at $109.50. Cattle slaughter from Tuesday is estimated at 119,000 head matching last Tuesday and up…

08/23/2018 With two weeks of reporting left in the marketing year for corn and soybeans, the corn export sales tally this morning was a little depressing. There were only 6.8 mln bushels of old crop sales, along with 41.5 mln new crop. The USDA forecast for old crop exports is 2.4 bln and there’s still 21 mln to go to hit that target. The ugliest part is the 225 mln unshipped bushels that have been sold, but not yet loaded for export. It doesn’t count towards the export tally until it’s shipped, so when you subtract those unshipped bushels from the current sales pace, that leaves 245.6 mln bushels of corn that need to make export inspections in the next two weeks to hit the…

Date: August 22nd, 2018 Only a few hundred head of fat cattle confirmed so far this week in the North at $172 dressed, $2 to $3 lower than last week. Fed cattle exchange online auction later this morning with 359 head consigned compared to last week’s 488 head of which none sold. OKC West - El Reno, OK Livestock Weighted Average Report for 8/21/2018 Receipts Week Ago Year Ago 1,500 5,968 5,223 *** Final report including feeder cattle will be released tomorrow 08/22/18 *** Compared to last Tuesday: Steer and heifer calves were lightly tested, however where comparable sales could be noted cattle sold with a higher undertone. Oklahoma National Stockyards - Oklahoma City, OK Livestock Auction Report for 8/20/2018 Receipts Week Ago Year Ago…

8/21/2018 Compared to the normal trade in recent weeks, live cattle futures showed very little volatility and a dull trading session yesterday. The range from high to low in everything was less than $1. Feeders traded in a range just over $1. Hogs were still acting flighty and pushed into new recent highs early, only to turn over and flop hard to the downside closing solidly in the red in everything. Feeders finished mildly lower in most, but down over $1 on the front month August. Live cattle were mixed at the close with the front three lower and the next two months mildly higher. In the hog trade, the cart got way out in front of the horse with the recent surge to the…

Date: August 20th, 2018 Cash feedlot trade was steady to $1 lower than the week previous at $109 to $111 live and $174 to $175 on a dressed basis. Cattle futures bottomed out early last week and beef prices were higher for the week. Fed cattle supplies through August and September should remain plentiful and at this time there seems to be limited positive news to encourage cattle futures and interest in moving the fed cattle market higher. Lean hog futures have now been gaining for the past 7 days with the prices sharply higher to end the week. African swine fever continues to spread across eastern China although they claim the outbreak in the region is now under control. This is the third confirmed…

In the face of the grain and oilseed trade getting kicked in the teeth on Friday following the report, meat complex futures were really pretty boring by comparison. Live cattle closed mixed and flat, feeders were mildly higher on everything and the hogs were mixed and flat, just like the live cattle. One of the bigger surprises of the day was watching a live cattle market that was flat and a corn market down in the double digits and feeders not able to muster more of a pronounced rally. I thought it would be a gimme for feeders to hit triple digit gains with such a bearish reaction in corn. According to the National Feeder Summary, calves and yearlings sold steady to $5 better last…