Sort & Cull

Farmers and ranchers are always looking for the right organization to belong to who will support them as a member. The Iowa Cattlemen's Association and Iowa Farm Bureau recently showed what they are doing for their members through work at the Iowa Capitol.

Pre-report estimates forecast placements to be anywhere from 90.0% to 94.7% of a year ago, so when the report showed placements in March were actually 88% -- cattlemen and traders alike were slightly taken back.

The market could decide to change direction, but the support plane of $172 is a critical focal point and worthy to note regardless of which way the market trades.

If you live in an area of total or even partial solar eclipse on Monday, whether it's sunny or cloudy, here's your chance to observe and record how the eclipse affects livestock, poultry, pet and wildlife behavior. You can answer a university survey that will help collect...

The difficult thing about situations like these is that until disease specialists have the time they need to run the tests necessary to better understand this flu variant, panic and fear fly as everyone in the market wants to be ahead of the story as opposed to behind...

One would like to think that the market would take bullish news and run with it. But when you study both the live cattle and feeder cattle market's charts, it's hard to demand that the market do much more when historically speaking the market is trading at its highest...

Given the snowstorms that crippled transportation, weekly sale barn auctions and consequently hindered feeder cattle placements in January, it should be common knowledge there were higher

I wish I could come to you early this week and share that packers are going to increase processing speeds to keep up with increasing consumer demand; however, that simply isn't the case.

Will chain speeds increase soon? I find it much more likely packers will keep chain speeds reduced so cash prices don't trade higher and supplies of market-ready cattle slowly start to build back up.

With harsh winter weather conditions prohibiting sales across the majority of the nation for a full week in January, it's hard to believe placements were only down 7% in Friday's Cattle on Feed report.

With the beef cow herd dramatically reduced, some feeder cattle buyers have already begun to buy grass calves.

Declining carcass weight is likely the reason packers were willing to buy Kansas-based cattle last week for $4 to $5 more than the previous week's weighted average while they were only willing to advance prices in Texas by $3.

During this time of excellent beef demand, the announcement of even fewer beef cows in the market will likely grab traders' attention and positively impact the market. I encourage you to tune into our comments on Wednesday regarding the inventory report and be ready for the...

I've cherished the time that I've gotten to spend with my family over the last couple of months, but I look forward to jumping back in the saddle and covering the markets in 2024 as the year ahead is bound to be full of opportunities.

The week ending Jan. 12 saw winter storms, bitter cold conditions, reduced slaughter, higher boxed beef prices, but lower prices of cash cattle. Specs are growing impatient, but cattle numbers aren't getting any bigger.

Speculators are not convinced the rebound in February cattle futures will continue, but so far, cash prices are holding firm.

Tuesday's USDA report is apt to show a second week of negotiated cattle prices gaining on formula, an encouraging sign of packer demand returning to the country.

The panic that set off a seven-week sell-off in February cattle prices appears to have eased. It's now up to the market to find a new trading range.

While senators push for a congressional vote to block the rule allowing the importation of beef from Paraguay, the secretaries of Agriculture from eight states send their own letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack also raising their concerns as well.

After a sharp, seven-week selloff in February cattle prices, hints of support finally started to show in the latest week.