Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 5/12/15

Posted 9 years 200 days ago by

Feeder cattle steady to $1 higher; futures higher.
Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades lower; futures lower; beef prices higher.
Cotton lower.
Grains mostly lower; soybeans lower.
Crude oil lower; natural gas lower.
Stock markets lower.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $1 higher. Feeder cattle futures settled $0.90 higher to close at $216.78 per hundredweight (cwt). The Texas fed cattle cash market had no reportable trade for Monday. Wholesale boxed beef values were higher, with Choice Grade settling at $259.57 per cwt and Select Grade at $248.10 per cwt. Estimated cattle harvest for the week totaled 113,000 head, on par with the previous week’s total, but down 2,000 from a year ago. Year-to-date harvest is down 1.7%. Fed cattle futures were $1.25 lower, closing at $150.25 per cwt.

Cotton prices were lower, with cash down 0.75 cents and futures 0.77 cents. For the reporting period of May 4-10, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that cotton planting remained active in areas of the Upper Coast, Lower Valley, and South Texas.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were lower, with corn cash and futures losing $0.03 and $0.01, respectively. Grain sorghum cash prices fell $0.04 to close at $6.80 per cwt. Soybean futures prices were $0.02 lower. Sixty-four percent of the planted Texas corn crop has emerged, on par with the same point last year.

Wheat cash prices closed unchanged from the previous day, but futures lost $0.01. Eighty-nine percent of the Texas wheat crop is in the heading stage, with 57% of wheat acreage in Good to Excellent condition.

Stock markets closed lower yesterday as stocks traded at a very low volume. Crude oil prices fell $0.140 to close at $59.25 per barrel, sustaining loses at the hands of the weakening dollar.

From the Weekly Recap:

AUSTIN – (May 11, 2015) For the week ending May 9, 2015, Texas auctions quoted feeder cattle prices mostly steady, with instances of sales ranging from $6 lower to$8 higher per hundredweight (cwt). Texas weekly direct feeder cattle sales were $1 to $3 higher. Wholesale beef values were higher, with Choice Grade gaining $3.48 to $258.12 per cwt and Select Grade gaining $3.60 to $246.82. Net export sales for April 24-30 were down 19 percent from the previous week. Export shipments were up 11 percent from the previous week, and shipments primarily went to Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

Cotton cash prices were 0.25 cents lower than the previous week and closed at 63.13 cents per pound. May futures prices fell 0.69 cents last week to settle at 66.16 cents per pound. For the reporting period of April 27-May 3, the USDA NASS Texas field office published that cotton planting was delayed in many areas of the state due to wet conditions. Net export cotton sales were 84 percent lower than the previous week’s sales. Shipments were up 45 percent from the previous week and 33 percent from the average.

Wheat cash and futures prices gained $0.10 and $0.19 respectively and closed at $4.65 per bushel and $5.11 per bushel respectively. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 82 percent of the Texas wheat crop is in the heading stage, with 52 percent of the acreage in good-to-excellent condition. Eighty-five percent of the Texas Winter Wheat crop remains in fair-to-excellent condition. Net export sales for wheat were up 67 percent from the previous week but down noticeably from the prior four-week average. Shipments were 53 percent lower than the previous week and 41 percent lower than the average.

Texas corn prices were mixed with cash prices up to $3.89 per bushel and futures prices down to $3.59 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 60 percent of the planted Texas corn crop has emerged, up from 58 percent at the same point last year. Seventy percent of Texas corn acreage had been planted, up 14 percentage points from last week but down two percentage points from the same period last year. Corn export sales were up one percent from the previous week and 15 percent from the four-week average. Export shipments were 11 percent lower than last week but four percent higher than the average.

According to USDA NASS, areas of the Blacklands received up to eight inches of rain, while areas of the Plains, Cross Timbers and East Texas reported totals of a quarter of an inch up to six inches. Last week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a slight improvement in drought conditions for the state, with just over 40 percent of the state still experiencing some stage of drought intensity. Additionally, more than 15 percent of the state remains in severe, extreme or exceptional drought. On the national level, drought conditions worsened slightly with nearly 54 percent of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, up more than 2.50 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 5/12/2015

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