Sort & Cull

It's easy to look at any week that's trading higher and say, "That's a win!" But a $1 lower trade can still be a win when feedlots keep the market from trading $3.00 to $5.00 lower.

Over the last three weeks, the cash cattle market has traded lower, but if you remember the 2014 cash cattle market, you'll remember that prices bobbled through April, May and June before regaining footing and trading fully higher in July.

Over a 10-year span, packers spend roughly eight of those years perfecting their trade and learning how to keep the cash cattle market on a controllable, tight leash. Adversely, when feedlots are finally given the opportunity to demand higher prices, they don't control that...

Does it matter where the Cattle on Feed report's actual findings land or just how they vary from analyst estimates?

DTN Livestock Analyst ShayLe Stewart says why she's skeptical if anyone says they know exactly when the cash cattle market will make its spring high. Here's what she's watching.

So long as moisture continues to accumulate, and consumer demand remains strong, this bull run should have no problem continuing its upward trek.

A technical look at June live cattle and spot feeder prices.

We often view the grain markets as highly reactive to any weather changes, but the cattle contracts can be affected by weather developments, too.

Regardless of what the futures complex decides to do with the recent COF report, we know where the market's fundamentals sit; when it comes to buying and selling cattle, these fundamentals remain relevant.

While seeing seasonal shifts or adaptations in the market is important to note, we can't allow ourselves to only focus on one side of the market. Yes, boxed beef prices have ran into some seasonal pressure, but we simply don't possess the number of cattle that we had in past...

It's not farfetched to say bull spreaders are alive and well in the cattle complex and are continuing to encourage the cattle contracts to test their upper limits. But why the big push now?

The cattle complex is rallying while the market sees the cyclical shift in supply with the U.S possessing fewer cattle than in recent years. So long as moisture continues to accumulate and demand remains unwavering, higher prices should continue to propel the live cattle and...

Regardless whether you're someone who looks to utilize placing a hedge on the futures market or managing your risk via a policy with a livestock risk protection (LRP) plan, it's important to know what these contracts are doing and what the market is telling us...

The primary reasons packers leaped into last week's cash cattle market as aggressively as they did are: 1) They want to pump the brakes on the vigorous momentum that's been driving cash cattle market prices higher over the last month; and 2) they want to build inventory so...

Over the last two months, we've slowly seen feedlots take on more of the marketing direction of the cash cattle market and slowly push trade out until Thursday or Friday of each week. This "market signal" tells packers feedlots aren't in a rush to trade cattle as they have a...

With beef cow processing as rapid as it was through 2022, I don't think it's out of line to anticipate that the January 2023 beef cow herd could be below 29 million head, which happened in 2014 and is the record low for the industry.

As of Jan. 1, 2023, there were 4.65 million head of heifers and heifer calves in feedlots across the U.S., which is 25,000 head fewer than a year ago.

In years past, one has been able to look at the spread in the April live cattle contract compared to the price of the June live cattle contract and see that it correlates to the price difference between feeder steers and heifers. Will that trend hold true in this year's...

USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) earlier this month mailed the 2022 Census of Agriculture paper questionnaires to producers around the country. They also have sent out codes for producers to fill out the information online as well. The deadline to respond...

If processing speeds mimic the pace kept in 2015 where close to 542,000 head were processed each week, one must wonder if that will be a vigorous enough processing rate to keep the market current.