Sort & Cull

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?

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.