March 1st, 2013

Cattle futures climbed to a three- week high on signs of increasing demand for U.S. beef and the outlook for tighter supplies. Hogs also rose.

Meatpackers processed 426,000 head of cattle in the first four days of this week, down 4.3 percent from a week earlier, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Steers averaged $1.26 a pound in the first three days of this week, up 2.6 percent from $1.2282 a week earlier, USDA data show.

“The combination of the cash market and the lower slaughter, that’s really the driving force” behind today’s rally, Christian Mayer, a market adviser at Northstar Commodity Investments Co., said in a telephone interview from Minneapolis.

Continue reading »

February 28th, 2013

Cattle futures rose, extending the longest rally in three months, on signs that supplies tightened after winter storms across the central U.S. disrupted animal shipments and spurred weight losses. Hogs also increased.

Wholesale beef rose 0.9 percent yesterday to $1.8557 a pound, a four-week high, the latest government figures showed. The second major storm in two weeks covered the southern Great Plains with more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow. During cold weather, livestock use more energy to stay warm, leading to lower weight.

Continue reading »

November 21st, 2012

Cattle futures surged to a record on signs of increasing demand for U.S. beef.

Meatpackers processed 259,000 cattle in the first two days of this week, up 7 percent from a week earlier, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Beef demand is picking up on the East Coast as consumers boost purchases in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Jason Roose, an analyst at U.S. Commodities Inc. in West Des Moines, Iowa, said in a telephone interview.

Continue reading »

October 16th, 2012

Cattle futures rose, heading for the biggest gain in two weeks, on signs of increasing demand for U.S. beef. Hog prices dropped.

Wholesale beef jumped 1.2 percent to $1.9396 a pound yesterday, the highest since Sept. 20, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. The 2.6 percent gain this month signals support for the meat market, said Chad Henderson, the president of Prime Agricultural Consultants Inc. Steers averaged $1.2389 cents a pound on spot markets last week, up 0.3 percent from a week earlier, government data show.

Continue reading »

October 3rd, 2012

Cattle futures prices fell for the first time in three sessions on signs of slowing U.S. demand for beef. Hog futures declined from a seven-week high.

Meatpackers processed 372,000 cattle in the first three days of this week, down 1.1 percent from the same period a week earlier, and down 5.8 percent from year earlier, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show. Wholesale-beef prices have dropped 2.1 percent this year, government data show.

Continue reading »

August 23rd, 2012

Cattle Futures – The worst U.S. drought in a half century and record feed prices are spurring farmers to shrink cattle herds to the smallest in two generations, driving beef prices higher.

Beef output will slump to a nine-year low in 2013 after drought damaged pastures from Missouri to Montana, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. The domestic herd is now the smallest since at least 1973, and retail prices reached a record last month, USDA data show. Cattle futures may rise 8.5 percent to an all-time high of $1.35 a pound in Chicago in the next 12 months, said Rich Nelson, the chief strategist at Allendale Inc. who has tracked the market for 15 years.

Continue reading »

June 13th, 2012

Cattle Futures – Anthony Stidham, a 48-year-old third-generation rancher from Oklahoma, is at the forefront of President Vladimir Putin’s plan to cut Russia’s $3 billion annual bill as the world’s biggest beef importer.

At the country’s largest beef farm about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Moscow, Stidham is passing on cattle- rearing skills to locals in a drive toward self-sufficiency that’s already involved shipping in about 60,000 Aberdeen Angus cattle from the U.S. and Australia.

Continue reading »

June 12th, 2012

Cattle Futures – The U.S. cattle herd has shrunk to the smallest since three years before Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) hamburger stand, reducing supply and raising prices even as domestic demand sinks to a two-decade low.

Beef output in the U.S., the biggest producer, will drop for a third year in 2013 after drought destroyed pastures, forcing farmers to cull herds to the smallest since 1952, government data show. Cattle futures traded in Chicago may rise to a record $1.33 a pound by year-end, according to Ron Plain, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri at Columbia who has advised the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Continue reading »

May 30th, 2012

Cattle futures fell to the lowest in two weeks on speculation that a sluggish global economy will curb demand for commodities. Hog prices dropped for the first time in a week.

The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of 24 raw materials tumbled to the lowest since October on signs that the European debt crisis is escalating. China, the biggest consumer of everything from pork to soybeans, has no plans to introduce stimulus measures to support growth on the scale similar to 2008, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said yesterday.

Continue reading »

April 26th, 2012

Commodity Brokers – The first time mad cow disease appeared in the U.S., beef exports plunged 82 percent. More than eight years later, the discovery of an infected dairy cow in California may do little to prevent shipments from surging to a record for a second straight year.

U.S. beef sales to buyers including Mexico, China and Japan will jump 6 percent to 1.34 million metric tons in 2012, exceeding last year’s record, which the government valued at $4.7 billion, said Global AgriTrends, a Denver-based researcher that advises meat companies, investment banks and hedge funds. The company affirmed its forecast after the U.S. reported its fourth case of mad cow since 2003 and first since 2006.

Continue reading »