Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Technical buying and a steady cash market helped fuel Chicago Mercantile Exchange live and feeder cattle futures on Thursday, sending prices to multi-week highs and stretching the rally into a fourth trading session, traders said. Most-active November feeder cattle touched its highest price since Sept. 9 and ended up 3.475 cents […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME cattle rally continues on steady cash market, technical buying
Chicago hogs also find support
U.S. grains: Wheat futures surge as supplies drop to 14-year low
CBOT soybean futures hit lowest since Dec. 29
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat futures surged on Thursday, after the federal government reported that U.S. supplies of wheat have fallen to their lowest level since 2007 — and that the wheat harvest is the smallest seen in 19 years. At the same time, the country ended the Sept. 1 crop year with slightly […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME hog futures rise on sustained buying
Interest tied to bullish USDA report; cattle futures continue lower
Reading Time: < 1 minute Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures closed higher on Thursday on continued buying interest tied to the recent bullish quarterly hog report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), traders said. CME October lean hogs settled up 0.8 cent at 91.6 cents/lb., while the most-active December contract rose 1.8 cents […] Read more
U.S. House ag leader loses election, unsettling Midwest farm sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Democratic U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, chair for the House of Representatives’ agriculture committee, failed to win re-election in Minnesota on Tuesday, a loss some agriculture leaders said could hurt the U.S. Midwest grain belt. Though Democrats retained control of the House and therefore will again chair the committee, Peterson’s exit could […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME hogs up on another swine fever case in Germany
Cash cattle values firming
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. hog futures rose on Thursday as Germany confirmed one more case of African swine fever in a wild boar, fueling market hopes that China will boost U.S. pork imports. The new case follows six others confirmed in wild boars, not farm animals, in the past week. While no farm animals […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME hog futures fall as China’s hog herd rebounds
CME December live cattle rise
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. livestock futures fell on Wednesday, as the futures market continues to cool in the wake of last week’s rally and on news that the size of China’s hog herd is quickly growing. Hog futures soared last week after Germany reported its first case of African swine fever (ASF) and China […] Read more
U.S. livestock: Futures mixed on pork export questions, cattle supplies
U.S. beef packer margins down on week
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. livestock futures had a mixed performance on Tuesday, as the supply of cattle being offered for sale continued to shrink and traders wrestled with uncertainty over pork export demand. An additional five cases of African swine fever (ASF) were initially found in dead wild boars in Germany. Initial tests were […] Read more
U.S. livestock: CME lean hogs fall, cattle up on technical trading, profit-taking
Hogs 'stretched out technically last week'
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — U.S. lean hog futures slid on Monday on technical selling and profit-taking, as the trade began to question whether Chinese demand for U.S. pork will boom after rival supplier Germany confirmed a single case of African swine fever in a wild boar. U.S. pork packer margins eased but still were solid, […] Read more
Minnesota fields thrive, Iowa storm damage continues on crop tour
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — Scouts on an annual U.S. Midwest crop tour continued to see fields battered by an Aug. 10 derecho storm in central Iowa on Thursday, with corn stalks snapped and ears littering the ground due to the hurricane-like winds. In Iowa, crop prospects swung wildly from field to field, according to scouts […] Read more
Storm and drought impacts on Iowa corn seen in crop tour
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chicago | Reuters — A clearer picture of damage to crops in the path of last week’s derecho storm emerged on Wednesday, as crop scouts on an annual tour scrambled across blown-over corn stalks and wind-battered soybean fields in Illinois and Iowa. Iowa officials on Tuesday warned much of the crop in the path of […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
