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DTN Midday Livestock Comments 08/14 11:53
Weaker Tones Dominate Livestock Complex Friday
Cash cattle bids are sitting on the table in Kansas and Nebraska on Friday,
but no new trade has developed yet.
ShayLe Stewart
DTN Livestock Analyst
GENERAL COMMENTS:
Thus far it's been a grim and uneventful Friday for the livestock complex as
the contracts continue to scale lower and fundamental support simply isn't
available in the marketplace. Bids of $233 live in Kansas and $351 dressed in
Nebraska are currently on the table, but there is yet to be any new trade.
December corn is up 8 1/2 cents per bushel and December soybean meal is up
$0.50. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 117.03 points and NASDAQ is
down 84.48 points.
ANALYST'S NOTE REGARDING TYSON FOOD'S ANNOUNCEMENT:
Tyson's announcement of their plant closures in Joslin, Illinois, and Eagle
Mountain, Utah, along with their intent to sell the plant in Pasco, Washington,
proves one, very clear thing: The cattle complex is changing, and this is by no
means the same marketplace cattlemen had a year ago, five years ago or even
back in 2015.
From an immediate perspective, Tyson's announcement helps clarify why the
board has been alarmingly soft over the last two trading days, as news travels
fast and keeping headline news such as this under wraps rarely happens. It also
solidifies the likeliness that the fed cash cattle market will trade lower in
the upcoming weeks, which could also affect feeder cattle prices.
From a long-term perspective, Tyson's announcement becomes a much more
difficult topic to table as it's multifaceted. On one hand, one must understand
the plants built in the 1960s are simply not as efficient as the plants
entering the marketplace today, like the Sustainable Beef Plant in North
Platte, Nebraska, (opened in May 2025) or like the Producer Owned Beef plant
currently under construction in Amarillo, Texas. Given the historically low cow
herd the U.S. sits with, it's no secret that ensuring a profit in the packing
sector has been a difficult endeavor over the last two years and could remain
challenging until domestic supplies increase. Secondly, from a grassroots
perspective, this is eerie news to stomach as keeping enough shackle space open
for however large the U.S. cow herd builds back to remains a pressing issue for
cattlemen who are considering growing their herds.
Regardless of where you operate in the supply chain; whether you're a
cow-calf operator in the grasslands of Montana, a stocker in Kansas, or a
fellow packer -- this announcement grabs your attention and demands
consequential thought. But there's one major theme that continues to live on
and is embedded in the cattle complex of our day and age: The business is chock
full of risk and is subject to nauseating headlines that can gravely derail the
market's trajectory and stability. Read DTN's full story by DTN Senior
Livestock Editor Jennifer Carrico here:
https://online.dtn.com/online/common/link.do?symbolicName=/ag/news/template1&pan
eContentId=5&paneParentId=50017&product=/ag/news/topstories&vendorReference=0c0f
ba83-c941-4c08-a717-47b7d70f5ae2.
LIVE CATTLE:
The live cattle complex is trading lower into Friday's noon hour as a lack
of fundamental support, mixed with Thursday's announcement that Tyson Foods
plans to close two beef plants and sell another, is weighing heavily on the
market. August live cattle are down $5.32 at $220.90, October live cattle are
down $3.90 at $216.15 and December live cattle are down $3.62 at $215.82. This
week's fed cash cattle market has traded only a handful of cattle in the North,
and there's yet to be any sizeable trade noted in the South. Packers are
expected to participate less in this week's market given they purchased over
104,000 head last week. But some trade will still likely need to develop in the
South before the week's over. Bids of $233 live are currently being offered in
Kansas and bids of $351 dressed are on the table in Nebraska.
Boxed beef prices are lower: choice down $1.17 ($374.73) and select down
$0.13 ($349.11) with a movement of 62 loads (46.77 loads of choice, 1.42 loads
of select, 4.80 loads of trim and 9.25 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
Again Friday, without enough support from the live cattle contracts, the
feeder cattle complex is trading lower. August feeder cattle are down $3.77 at
$339.05, September feeder cattle are down $5.60 at $331.60 and October feeder
cattle are down $6.62 at $322.17. A lower close is expected for the complex as
it's highly unlikely the futures turn higher ahead of Friday's close.
LEAN HOGS:
Although midday pork cutout values are higher, traders simply don't see one
day's worth of mild support from consumers as enough to justify trading the
contracts higher at this point in the week. October lean hogs are down $0.90 at
$81.22, December lean hogs are down $0.87 at $72.22 and February lean hogs are
down $0.77 at $75.47. The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 8/13/2026 is down
$0.19 at $95.68, and the actual index for 8/12/2026 is down $0.02 at $95.87.
Hog prices are lower on the Daily Direct Morning Hog report, down $4.25 with a
weighted average price of $93.03, ranging from $90.00 to $94.50 on 445 head and
a five-day rolling average of $96.63. Pork cutouts total 258.10 loads with
240.16 loads of pork cuts and 17.94 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up
$1.53, $100.45.
ShayLe Stewart can be reached shayle.stewart@dtn.com
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