In a strange turn of events, cattle prices actually moved up a few days in a row. What’s going on? Was Friday’s cattle-on-feed report that supportive? Have retail prices finally pulled back and demand is climbing? To delve into what’s at work in the cattle markets, we go, as always, to Anne Wasko of Gateway… Read More
Category: Beef Market Update
While there have been a few days lately where cattle values have ended the day in the green, the trend is still headed lower. And quickly. Cattle futures are now at levels we haven’t seen since the fourth quarter of 2010. “We haven’t been here for a long time. We really weren’t expecting these levels this… Read More
Beef is facing stiff competition from other proteins as huge North American pork and poultry production is coinciding with big beef supplies. “We have issues on all sides of the fence. We’re looking at record production on both pork and poultry right in front of us,” explains Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock in this Beef Market… Read More
With every bounce off of a new low in the cattle market, there’s hope prices have finally bottomed out. October live cattle futures in the U.S. have recovered by $7-8 in the last week, after dropping to around the $100 mark in the first week of September. “Hopefully we can look back, and I know… Read More
A frustrating summer has come to a head over the last few weeks, as already-weak cattle prices are on a streak lower. Cash prices in the U.S. have fallen to $110 per hundred weight, notes Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock. “That’s the lowest they’ve been in five years, and that’s five bucks off of last… Read More
The inaugural Canadian Beef Industry Conference is underway in Calgary, Alberta this week, and this morning, RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney and Gateway Livestock’s Anne Wasko took the opportunity to film a Beef Market Update in-person, in our studio on the trade-show floor. The duo started off talking about some of the good news in the industry, how we’re… Read More
With fat cattle prices in Alberta $40 lower than they were a year ago, the view from where the cattle feeders will be sitting come this fall’s sale season will look different than it did in 2015. “Estimated losses in July for cattle finishing in Alberta on a spot-to-spot basis are about $350 to the… Read More
It’s been an interesting week for market analysts. According to Gateway Livestock’s Anne Wasko, cattle prices had a tough week leading up to Friday, then “Brexit — the ‘leave’ victory — sort of sent markets into an upheaval.” Commodity Analysts, Traders and Media React to Brexit Decision The news that the United Kingdom had voted to leave… Read More
A big spike in the United States’ live cattle cash market left producers hopeful late last week. “In the south — down in Texas, Kansas — we had the market up three dollars, to $1.28 US,” explains Gateway Livestock’s Anne Wasko, in this week’s Beef Market Update (included below). “And the northern markets — Nebraska, Colorado,… Read More
Earlier this week, Brian Perillat, senior analyst with Canfax, joined Shaun Haney to talk about the May 1 cattle report. The report, published Sunday, showed on-feed numbers in Alberta and Saskatchewan up 8%. What caused the bump? “As Brian alluded in that last interview, the cattle that didn’t go south — the feeder cattle last fall… Read More
Retailers are enjoying this part of the beef cycle. Producers? Not so much. Cattle futures put in some new lows last week, as Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock joins us for another Beef Market Update. With slaughter levels in the U.S. up around 10 percent for the last two weeks of April, there’s been a… Read More
Cattle feeding does take a true cast iron gut at times. Whether it is dollar exchange, feed costs or external political factors, the volatility in all the profit and loss variables is enough to drive you mad. In this weeks Beef Market Update Anne Wasko and Shaun Haney discuss the beef markets and how the… Read More
The first quarter of 2016 is in the books and it’s becoming clear the last two years in the cattle market were likely outliers. “Unfortunately it’s a reminder of what normal is. 2016 is nothing like 2014 and 2015 which were really bull markets that kept running through most of both years. That’s not the… Read More
Are we finally seeing signs of expansion in the Canadian beef herd? If you dig deep enough into Canadian cattle inventory report published by Statistics Canada last week, you might just be inclined to answer yes. The twice-a-year report showed total cattle and calf numbers across the country on January 1 were up just 0.3 percent… Read More
Cattle prices may not be where they were a year ago, but ranchers are generally still an optimistic bunch at current levels. Anne Wasko of Gateway Livestock joins us in the middle of her busy winter meeting circuit for this latest edition of the Beef Market Update. Domestically, the volatile Canadian dollar continues to play with… Read More