Sort & Cull

Barring a huge upset (or erroneously stuffed envelope), the great market crab of the Jan-Feb period is none other than live cattle futures. Never have such extreme price discounts been so stubbornly defended in the face of absolutely explosive cash and product news.

The open winter conditions are at least playing a part in jump-starting seasonal demand typically related to the heart of grilling interest in late spring and early summer.

Until the CME can somehow revive the critical reality of convergence, risk managers will find live cattle futures to be no more useful than an ornamental doorstop.

Among many changes happening on the national level are restrictions of immigrants and refugees. What that means to the livestock industry is up in the air, but change is coming.

Members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture put together a list of priorities for the farm bill as the group's members were meeting in Washington, D.C., last week.

The headlines and analytical claptrap following the Dec. 1 Hogs and Pigs Report were consistently bearish. So who's giving the early year party?

Since the phone always rings when you're in the shower, John Harrington offers to jump in the shower so perhaps the president-elect will speed up announcing his new Ag secretary.

As the sun sets on the cattle market roller coaster of 2016, DTN Livestock Analyst John Harrington finds himself thinking about the wit and wisdom of Charles Goodnight, the great pioneer rancher of the Texas range.

Thirty days left in the Obama administration and you can rest assured it won't end quietly.

When the spot month broke above the lateral trading range just before Thanksgiving, the stage was set for a significant rally through the last month of the year.

This week's market backdrop of sharply higher cash sales on one hand and crashing cattle futures on the other is leaving John Harrington in a state of not-so-bonnie confusion on market roads to take.