Texas Daily Ag Market News Summary 8/11/15

Posted 9 years 140 days ago by

Feeder cattle steady to $4 higher, with instances of $5 lower; futures higher.
Fed cattle cash trade inactive; formula trades lower; futures higher; beef prices higher.
Cotton higher.
Grains and soybeans higher.
Crude oil higher; natural gas higher.
Stock markets higher.

Texas feeder cattle auctions quoted prices steady to $4 higher, with instances of $5 lower. Feeder cattle futures settled $0.12 higher to close at $214.25 per hundredweight (cwt). The Texas fed cattle cash trade was inactive yesterday. Wholesale boxed beef values were higher, with Choice Grade settling at $238.52 per cwt and Select Grade at $231.92 per cwt. Estimated cattle harvest for the week totaled 107,000 head, on par with last week’s total, but down 5,000 from this time last year. Year-to-date harvest is down 5.3%. Fed cattle futures gained $0.67 to settle at $150.25 per cwt.

Cotton prices were higher, with cash prices gaining 0.25 cents to settle at 58.13 cents per pound, and futures prices gaining 0.35 cents to settle at 63.12 cents per pound. For the reporting period of August 3 – August 9, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that 94 percent of cotton acreage was in the squaring stage. This is up five percentage points from the previous week, but down three percentage points from last year.

Corn and grain sorghum prices were higher, with corn cash and futures prices both gaining $0.17, settling at $4.16 per bushel and $3.90 per bushel, respectively. Grain sorghum cash prices gained $0.30 to close at $7.11 per cwt. Soybean futures prices were $0.36 higher, closing at $10.45 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that 97 percent of the Texas corn crop is in the silking stage, with 57% of corn acreage in Good to Excellent condition. Harvest of corn neared completion in many areas of the Upper Coast.

Wheat cash prices gained $0.11 and futures prices gained $0.12 to close at $4.48 per bushel and $5.05 per bushel, respectively. The USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that 100 percent of the Texas wheat crop has been harvested, with 47% of wheat acreage in Good to Excellent condition. Field preparations continued for the 2016 wheat crop

Stock markets closed higher yesterday, on news of a major acquisition from Berkshire Hathaway. Crude oil prices gained $1.09 to close at $44.96 per barrel.

From the Weekly Recap:

AUSTIN – (August 10, 2015) For the week ending August 8th, 2015, Texas auctions quoted feeder cattle prices mostly steady, with instances of sales ranging from $2 lower to $8 higher per hundredweight (cwt). Texas weekly direct feeder cattle sales were $1.00 to $4.00 higher regaining part of what was lost last week. Wholesale beef values were higher, with Choice Grade gaining $3.09 to close at $264.34 per cwt and Select Grade gaining $0.85 to close at $230.14 per cwt. Net export sales totaling 5,900 metric tons (MT) for July 24 – July 30 were down six percent from the previous week. Export shipments of 10,500 MT were down 11 percent from the previous week. Shipments primarily went to Japan, South Korea, and Mexico.

Cotton cash prices were 1.50 cents lower than the previous week and closed at 57.88 cents per pound. October futures prices settled at 62.77 cents per pound, 1.24 cents lower than last week. For the reporting period of July 27 – August 2, the USDA NASS Texas field office indicated that 89 percent of cotton acreage is in the squaring stage, up 10 percentage points from the previous week, but down three percentage points from last year. Net export cotton sales were down noticeably from the previous week’s sales. Shipments were up 11 percent from the previous week and eight percent from the average. The primary destinations were Vietnam, Turkey, and South Korea.

Wheat cash prices lost $0.01 and futures prices gained $0.01 to settle at $4.37 per bushel and $4.93 per bushel, respectively. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported that 100 percent of the Texas wheat crop has been harvested, with 47% of wheat acreage in Good to Excellent condition. Net export sales for wheat were 838,500 MT, with increased purchases reported for the Dominican Republic, Japan, and the Philippines.

Texas corn prices were higher, with cash prices up to $3.99 per bushel and futures prices up to $3.73 per bushel. The USDA NASS Texas field office reported 91 percent of the Texas corn crop is in the silking stage, with 57% of corn acreage in Good to Excellent condition. Corn export sales were down noticeably from the previous week and from the prior four-week average. Export shipments were six percent lower than the previous week and seven percent lower than the average.

This week’s U.S. Drought Monitor for Texas showed a worsening of drought conditions for the state, with 27.67% of Texas still in some stage of drought intensity. Additionally, none of the state remains in extreme or exceptional drought, down 5.48 percentage points from three months ago. On the national level, drought conditions also worsened, with 42.29% of the U.S. experiencing abnormal dryness or some degree of drought, up 3.40 percentage points from last 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 8/11/2015

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