U.S. cattle slaughter was up an estimated 25% over the previous holiday-shortened week as beef packers gradually return to near-normal capacity utilization.
The cattle industry sees a glimmer of hope in last week's harvest data, with estimated slaughter at 452,000 head, down 32.2 percent year-over-year, but up 6.4 percent from the prior week.
The indefinite closure of Tyson's Holcomb, Kan., facility creates the potential the cattle "marketing pace will slow down and carcass weights will increase."
The abundant moisture that is keeping producers from marketing cattle is also setting cattle country up for favorable grazing conditions this spring and is also positively influencing summer grazing pastures.
Research by the University of Nebraska investigating summer dry lotting of cow-calf pairs has shown seasonal dry lotting can be a cost competitive option to traditional production systems.
U.S. cattle producers have called on CME Group Inc and federal legislators to rein in price volatility they say has rendered the world's largest livestock futures market ineffective.
Brazil’s J&F Investimentos, controlling shareholder of the world’s largest meatpacker JBS SA , is renegotiating the leniency agreement reached last year over its role in corruption scandals.
The ban on fresh Brazilian beef exports to the U.S. could end after the U.S. finishes its review of documents sent in response to questions raised in a U.S. veterinary mission to Brazil earlier this year.
In a bizarre twist, Nebraska authorities say human remains found in a recently purchased stock trailer may belong to one of the brothers murdered in Missouri last summer.
