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ANALYSIS: Keeping Tabs on the Q1 Protein Production Trend
In light of this week’s uninspiring level of spot trade activity, we thought it would be a good opportunity to venture away from the day-to-day in favor of a broader view of...
ANALYSIS: And the Year-End Export Figures Are...
The most recent release of the USDA’s export data paints a fairly choppy year-end picture to the turkey side of the business...
CHART: Industry Expectations for Weekly Cattle Slaughter
ANALYSIS: An Initial 2020 Chicken Production Assessment
With the first couple weeks of 2020 under the industry’s collective belt, we thought it would be a good opportunity to check in on the slaughter stats...
ANALYSIS: Checking In On February’s Turkey Prices
Those in attendance at the National Turkey Federation Meeting this week are sure to be discussing the current state of the market and...
ANALYSIS: A Post-Football Wing Assessment
In the thirty days following Superbowl Sunday, wing values have traditionally glided back down to regular levels...
ANALYSIS: The Seasonal Price Floor of Whole Body Toms
Each year following the International Production and Processing Exposition (IPPE), players get down to business...
ANALYSIS: Chicken Cold Storage: The Year-End Figures Are In
After a great deal of anticipation, chicken market participants and observers finally get a glimpse of the year-end 2019 Cold Storage Report...
ANALYSIS: US Table-Laying Hen Flock Climbs to Near-Record Level
U.S. egg production totaled 9.8 billion during December 2019, up 4% from last year, according to the USDA’s monthly Chicken and Eggs report released this week. The number of hens laying table or market type eggs rose to...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Thigh Meat and Boneless Pork Ham Values: Raising the Bar
While turkey thigh meat and boneless pork hams typically trade independently of one another here in the States, upon moving south of the border, these two proteins often...
ANALYSIS: Chicken Weights – Onward and Upward
It almost goes without saying that when it comes to commodity valuation, there is no shortage of variables which have the potential to influence the supply and demand sides of the equation...
ANALYSIS: An Off-Season Breast Meat Assessment
Turkey breast meat is no stranger to seasonal fluctuations in value. From an historical perspective, spot prices tend to reach their annual peak in late Q3 and...
CHART: Industry Expectatons for Weekly Cattle Slaughter
ANALYSIS: Weighing in on WOGs
As chicken market participants get their first glimpse of the 2020 trade environment, we thought it would be a great opportunity to check in on what has, so far, proven to be...
ANALYSIS: Comparing the Rise & Fall of Holiday Rib Values
We closed off the last two months of 2019 seeing ribs continue to fall in price, leaving many to wonder when they would reach their bottom. Seasonally, the rib primal begins to collapse after the holiday buying season. The seasonal trend stayed true to course; however...
ANALYSIS: A Turkey White Meat Comparison
From an historical standpoint, fresh breeder meat is currently enjoying a price relationship with fresh tom breast meat that is closer than it has been for most of the past decade...
ANALYSIS: US Shell-Egg Inventories Climb to Record-High Levels
Total shell-egg stocks on hand soared 6.6% to a record-high 2.051 million cases this week, according to the USDA’s latest inventory report, released yesterday afternoon. Shell eggs alone increased...
REPORTER: UK Egg Production Reaches All-time High
The UK’s egg packing station throughput reached another all-time record during Q3 reaching 7,998 thousand cases of eggs, up 3.6% year-on-year, according to...
REPORTER: Packing Plant Fire Causes Loss of Capacity, Leading to Record Margins
Boxed beef margins pierced through record levels driven by the reaction to the Tyson Food’s Holcomb, Kansas plant fire late Friday, August 9, 2019, and closure of the facility for an extended, unknown period. Before we expand on that...
Reporter: Egg Prices Jump More Than 60% Ahead of the Holidays
ANALYSIS: Chicken Storage on a Predictable Path
Other than the dialogue related to China and the impact it has already had on trade sentiment and market values, the backdrop of chatter is still...
ANALYSIS: A Chicken Production Assessment
With just under two weeks to go before the new year is upon us, it’s safe to say that 2019 has proven to be an historic period for chicken production...
ANALYSIS: Whole Body Turkeys: Testing the Seasonal Floor
Although the focus of consumers has shifted away from whole body toms and hens and back toward competing proteins, turkey industry participants remain...
ANALYSIS: Boneless Chicken Breasts and the New Norm
If we had to choose one item in the chicken market which has been most highly impacted by the deeply rooted industry trend of heavier and heavier bird weights, it would have to be...
ANALYSIS: Weighing in on Toms
One of the more perplexing characteristics of the 2019 breast meat market is the fact that since the year opened, no seasonal appreciation in value developed. What makes it more interesting is...
ANALYSIS: Digging into 2019’s YTD Production Stats
With 2020 just around the corner, chicken market participants take some time to reflect on how this year has played out, so far...
ANALYSIS: Evaluating the Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Trade Environment
With the Thanksgiving dust starting to settle, turkey market participants have begun to shift their attention toward the road ahead as they ponder...
ANALYSIS: All Eyes on the West
With China once again opening their door to US poultry imports, we thought it would be a great opportunity to take a step back to assess the performance of legs and leg quarters throughout the years...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Retail Ad Exposure on The Rise
With just over one short week to go before Thanksgiving is upon us, it’s safe to say that turkey marketers have their hands full as they work to box and ship fresh bird commitments and fulfill any last-minute orders of frozen toms and hens...
ANALYSIS: Deciphering Chicken Dark Meat
News of China lifting its five-year ban on U.S poultry and therefore granting access to more than a billion dollars’ worth of potential export business for chicken and chicken products is making the rounds...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Export Volume Continues to Outpace 2018
Despite a 6.06 million-pound decline in total turkey export volume from the month prior, September marks the sixth consecutive month of YoY advancements in overall export tonnage...
ANALYSIS: Chicken Price Check: Feeling the Pressure
With just two months to go before 2020 is upon us the year’s macro trends are revealing themselves...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Price Check: Looking Up
Despite the stable and uneventful state of the turkey market, it might be surprising how fruitful a year it’s been for those on the selling side of the equation...
ANALYSIS: Egg Prices Rally Nearly 60%
US shell egg prices have risen sharply over the last three weeks. From the lows seen in the middle of October, the benchmark Midwest large quote has jumped...
ANALYSIS: China Trade Talks Suggest a Light is at the End of the Tunnel
Current trade discussions between the US and China stand to benefit the US poultry industry which has been unable to export to China since 2015...
ANALYSIS: Reaping Rewards: A New Time For Turkey
As October winds down, naturally more attention is being paid to toms and hens as the seasonal spotlight once again casts some light onto the turkey industry...
ANALYSIS: Cold Storage and Pullet Placements Paint Mixed Picture
With September’s YoY chicken inventories dropping by about 4.5%, the most recent release of the USDA’s Cold Storage Report has caught the attention of market participants...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Holdings Tell a Seasonal Tale
Keeping in line with what spot market activity suggests, the latest release of the USDA’s Cold Storage Report paints a seasonal picture...
ANALYSIS: Weighing In On Chicken Wings
In light of the attention that chicken wings have received recently, we thought it would be a great opportunity to check in on the various factors currently impacting the market...
ANALYSIS: A Return to the Seasonal Norm
As we inch towards Thanksgiving and participants eagerly await fill-in business to develop, the return of seasonality this year has caught the attention of industry veterans who were beginning to forget what it looked like...
CHART: Industry Expectations for Weekly Slaughter
ANALYSIS: All Eyes on Chicken Production
As chicken market participants navigate through the final quarter of 2019, they turn to the stats in an effort to better assess the various market influences that they face within the current trade environment...
ANALYSIS: Tallying Up Turkey Export Tonnage
With August marking the fifth consecutive month of YoY advancements in total turkey export volume, it’s safe to say that, so far, 2019 has proven to be...
ANALYSIS: Keeping Tabs on Key Market Factors
In light of an underwhelming level of spot buying and selling activity within the chicken complex, we thought it would be a great opportunity to check in on some of the major influencers to see what impact they are having on the market...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Production Tug of War
As we enter Q4, and without any significant hurdles between now and Thanksgiving, marketers of retail packaged turkeys are gearing up for a seasonally hectic pace associated with fulfilling and delivering voluminous holiday orders...
ANALYSIS: Checking in on Chicken in Cold Storage
Monday’s release of the USDA’s Cold Storage Report helps to reinforce many of the key market observations which we reported on throughout the month of August...
ANALYSIS: Keeping Tabs on Frozen Turkey Inventory
Monday’s release of the USDA’s Cold Storage Report for the period ending August 31st marks the fifth consecutive month of YoY reductions of total frozen turkey holdings...
ANALYSIS: Shell-Egg Inventories Jump 3.5% from Last Week; Up 12.9% from Last Year
Shell-egg supplies climbed 3.5% to 1.517 million cases last week, according to the USDA’s latest round of inventory data, released yesterday afternoon. This marks the...
ANALYSIS: Examining 2019’s Production Expectations
In light of this week’s relatively subdued level of spot trade activity within the chicken marketplace, we thought it would be a good opportunity to step away from the day-to-day in favor of a mile-high glimpse of 2019’s protein production outlook...
ANALYSIS: Checking In On The Turkey Hatch
When it comes to turkey poult placements, 2019 has consistently trended below 2018 levels and August was no exception...
CHART: Industry Expectations for Weekly Hog Slaughter
The Urner Barry hog slaughter poll for the week ending 9/21/19 resulted in an average industry participant response of 2,588,000 head...
ANALYSIS: Chicken Exports: A Strong Start to Q3
July’s export figures bring some much-needed clarity to a market which has been riddled with political trade tension and cross-protein competition, mostly in the form of increased outbound shipments of chicken...
ANALYSIS: Beefing Up Turkey Exports
Despite positive performance in the latest turkey export figures, they still fell short of the buoyed expectations fueled by the Japan trade agreement back in...
CHART: Industry Expecations for Weekly Cattle Slaughter
ANALYSIS: Another Day, Another Chicken
Keeping in line with what has, so far, been an historic year for production, the pullet placement figures suggest that even more broilers will be in the cards moving forward...
ANALYSIS: Balancing the Supply and Demand Scale
Without any major food-oriented holidays left between now and Thanksgiving, whole bird market participants turn their attention toward November in anticipation of what’s to come...
ANALYSIS: A Clear Trend Toward More Efficient Chicken Weights
With YTD ready-to-cook production continuing to trend upward by about 2% when compared to 2018, and in the absence of any major deviations in what has been a fairly lackluster set of demand patterns for chicken recently, we thought it would be a good time to turn our attention to the supply side of the equation...
ANALYSIS: Gearing Up for Turkey Season
As we enter the final stretch of Q3, turkey market participants put their game faces on as whole bird season gets its second wind...
ANALYSIS: Record Low Medium Breast Meat Values: What's Happening at Retail?
When it comes to the former, the USDA Fresh Chicken Retail Feature Activity shows that current total chicken featuring resides well below the seven-year average, including 2018, a year which was certainly one to forget for those marketing fresh chicken parts...
ANALYSIS: RTC Production: A Comparison Between Monthly and Weekly Data
As illustrated by our chart, monthly YTD ready-to-cook tonnage and the data derived from the weekly slaughter report have generally followed a similar rate of increase. The monthly data however, has consistently tended above the monthly RTC figures...
ANALYSIS: Cold Storage Holdings: A Prognosticator of Wing Performance?
As preseason football season gets underway, fans are beginning to flock to their local drinking hole to watch the game and enjoy America’s favorite finger food: chicken wings. Taking a look at inventory levels and price reaction in the period leading up to...
ANALYSIS: Turkey Thigh Meat and Boneless Pork Hams At a Crossroads
From an historical standpoint, marketers of turkey thigh meat and boneless pork ham are no strangers to some cross-protein rivalry...
ANALYSIS: “Smart” Poultry Houses Influential in Seasonally Heavy Bird Weights
When it comes to commodity valuation, there are numerous internal and external variables which have the capacity to influence the supply and demand sides of the equation...
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