Sort & Cull

One can only hope that if the nation's lawmakers get around to adequately stuffing a reasonable hot dog of immigration reform, it includes a good deal of guest-worker help for agriculture, says DTN Livestock Analyst John Harrington.

If the trade dispute between the U.S. and China quakes like a trade war, then it's probably a trade war.

While John Harrington feels the pain of the feedlot managers, successful management absolutely requires open eyes and ears even through the toughest of times. This week John plays the part of someone's grumpy and perpetual naysaying relative.

Call him a heartless fuddy-duddy, call him a mocker of pomp and circumstance, but there is only thing that would draw John Harrington to the royal wedding as a guest.

During Tyson's conference call with market reporters, Tyson executives only briefly mentioned the elephant in the room and left it still trumpeting when the callers left the line.

Our livestock analyst sees this spring's strange crop of extreme cattle discounts and shaky hog premiums in "one-flew-over-the-cuckoo's-nest" terms.

Many cow-calf producers may soon be facing a serious need for accelerated decision-making relative to pasture conditions and summer feed.

In the U.S. and China tit-for-tat tariff proposals, have farmers been sacrificed?

Can the U.S. pork industry secure and hold enough product demand to make the expansion model profitably sustainable?

Nervous traders of spring and summer cattle futures have been scurrying around like a flock of Chicken Littles since 2018 began. But is the market sky of the second quarter truly falling?

At the Agricultural Outlook Forum last week, USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson gave an optimistic outlook for meat exports in 2018. But he's likely smart enough to be inwardly tempered by a long list of potentially serious potholes along the road of export growth.

The fragile process of cattle herd growth has become so tenuous, the case could be made for measuring periods of expansion in terms of dog years.

JBS manages to sell its feedlot network and preserve captive supply, too

A fairly intense day-to-day market watch suggests cattle futures remain broken, at least in terms of a practical tool for commercial managers.

Based on their recent comments, Ted McKinney, USDA undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross don't seem to fully understand what an incredibly large economic engine NAFTA represents, not just for U.S. farmers and...

You might think that 12 long millennia after the Neolithic Revolution, men and women would have managed greater honesty and fairness with a work environment they share more intensely than ever before. Apparently not.

If you think the spirit of Ronald Reagan was somehow smiling down on Speaker Paul Ryan's reckless process and shoddy product this week, you may be well served to review just how seriously our 40th president took the subject of tax reform.

Halloween was good to cattle bulls this year. Very, very good.

Can we match infrastructure planning (i.e. building more shackle space) with farrowing intentions?

Chain speeds are racing in hog slaughter plants, but can old machinery keep up?