Sort & Cull

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?

A premium structure to live cattle futures has returned with a vengeance this fall. So why have premium promoters become so drunk with enthusiasm?

When the sun sets on Labor Day on Monday, which cut of meat will have blackened the most grills?

Fed cattle and hog prices have been on a slow but steady doomsday march since mid-July, both losing approximately $8-$9 over 30 days or so. Yet one hardly needs to blame cosmic chaos or the reverse gravity of black holes to explain the late-summer bearishness.

Nothing underscores the importance of keeping your plow in the ground like the recent history of South Korean demand for U.S. beef.

When news is no news, it's good for the cattle industry.

Is there a trend change afoot? Or is it just market noise?

Number-crunchers received the first hard evidence of regional beef herd liquidation this week.

If the hotter-than-normal weather seen in late spring continues throughout the summer, it could have a negative impact on the cattle market.

As we close the book on an amazingly bullish week, a week that saw live cattle prices jump as much as $5-$6 from the pre-holiday market, DTN Livestock Analyst John Harrington feels he owes someone out there a "never mind."

Brazil has troubles of its own that rival those in the US.

U.S. cattlemen face a new marketing challenge -- interpreting two great inscrutables, China and Donald J. Trump.

John Harrington takes a closer look at what is driving the remarkable performance of the fed cattle market so far in 2017, and to what do cattlemen owe for this mad orgy of money making.

Why have cattle traders transformed from wallflowers to party animals at the board? DTN Livestock Analyst John Harrington explains.