Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 4/28/15

Posted 9 years 214 days ago by

Feeder cattle steady to lower; futures higher.
Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades lower; futures sharply lower; beef prices mixed.
Cotton steady to lower.
Grains lower; soybeans higher.
Crude oil lower; natural gas lower.
Stock markets lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $6 lower. Feeder cattle futures settled $0.05 higher to close at $214.90 per hundredweight (cwt). The Texas fed cattle cash market had no reportable trade for Monday. Wholesale boxed beef values were mixed, with Choice Grade settling lower at $256.89 and Select Grade higher at $247.98. Estimated cattle harvest for the week totaled 105,000 head, down 5,000 from the previous week’s total and 9,000 from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 7.9%. Fed cattle futures were $0.70 lower, closing at $160.48 per cwt.

Cotton prices were steady to lower, with cash unchanged and futures down 0.11 cents. For the reporting period of April 20-26, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that cotton planting remained active in areas of the Northern Plains.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were lower, with grain sorghum cash prices falling $0.08 from the previous day’s closing prices. Soybean futures prices were $0.03 higher. Forty-nine percent of the planted Texas corn crop has emerged, down from 54% at the same point last year.

Wheat cash and futures prices were $0.12 and $0.11 higher, respectively. Sixty percent of the Texas wheat crop is in the heading stage, with 52% of the acreage in Good to Excellent condition.

Stock markets saw a retreat from last week’s gains. Crude oil prices fell $0.160 to close at $56.99 per barrel, continuing yesterday’s losses.

From the Weekly Recap:

AUSTIN – (April 27, 2015) For the week ending April 25, 2015, Texas auctions quoted feeder cattle prices steady, with several instances of prices falling below previous sales’ tests. Texas weekly direct feeder cattle sales were $1 to $6 lower. Wholesale beef values were lower, with Choice Grade falling $0.80 to close at $256.99 per cwt and Select Grade falling $3.35 to $247.62 per cwt. Net export sales for April 10-16 were up 79 percent from the previous week. Export shipments were down nine percent from the previous week.

Cotton cash prices were 1 cent higher than the previous week, closing at 64.13 cents per pound. May futures prices rose 3.21 cents last week to settle at 66.50 cents per pound. The USDA NASS Texas field office noted for the reporting period of April 13-19 that field preparations for cotton were slowed due to rainfall in the South East and Upper Coast. Seven percent of cotton acreage has been planted. Net export cotton sales were noticeably higher than the previous week’s sales. Shipments were up 61 percent from the previous week and four percent from the average.

Wheat cash prices lost six cents to close at $4.66 per bushel. Additionally, futures fell seven cents to settle at $5.02 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 50 percent of Texas wheat was in the heading stage. Eighty-six percent of the Texas Winter Wheat crop remains in fair-to-excellent condition. Fifty-one percent of the wheat crop is in excellent or good condition. Net export sales for wheat were up noticeably from the previous week and from the prior four-week average. Shipments were 45 percent higher than the previous week and 40 percent higher than the average.

Texas corn prices were lower with cash prices down 15 cents to $3.88 per bushel and futures prices also down 15 cents to $3.65 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 37 percent of the planted Texas corn crop has emerged, down from 48 percent at this point last year. Fifty-one percent of Texas corn acreage has been planted, up five percentage points from the previous week but down nine percentage points from the same period last year. Corn export sales were up 48 percent from the prior week and 68 percent from the four-week average. Export shipments were 20 percent higher than last week and 10 percent higher than the average.

Most of the state received precipitation last week, with regions reporting anywhere from 0.01 inches to up to 15 inches. Last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a slight improvement in drought conditions for the state, with just over 44.5 percent of Texas in some stage of drought intensity, down 2.6 percentage points from last week. Additionally, almost 22 percent of the state remains in severe, extreme or exceptional drought. On the national level, drought conditions improved, with nearly 53.4 percent of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, down about 5.4 percentage points from the previous week.

Additional information on agricultural weather, crop progress and agricultural markets can be found on the TDA Market News page.

Daily Market Summary Data for 4/28/2015

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