More Of The Same

The end of January is here and February is a short month.  Beef Production numbers continue to lag due to COVID and labor issues. Last week’s harvest of 636K head is heading in the right direction, the prior week’s final was adjusted down to 618K head.  Light production is pushing prices higher pretty much across all beef items.  Grinds continue to lead the way higher but chucks and rounds are moving up strongly too.  Middle meats are moving higher as well.  We have Valentine’s Day coming in a couple weeks.  Pricing on middle meats will not be going down before then so it would not be a bad idea to work ahead if you know your needs for the holiday.  Once we see better harvest numbers I do think we will see this market move lower but I’m not seeing that just yet.  PORK.  Pork bellies continue higher closing at $154 yesterday, higher than last week’s $147.  I still think we have a few more weeks of this climb and then we should see some buying opportunities on bacon.  The big news this week is a California court has delayed the implementation of Prop 12 the animal welfare proposition passed by California voters in 2018.  California ag now has 6 months to develop guidelines then 6 months to implement so push this off at least another year.  Pork product is increasing slowly from prior weeks but still well behind last year.  Expect strong prices on pork to continue.  CHICKEN – Boneless skinless breast meat continues to be in demand and driving chicken prices higher.  Look at QSR for this driving up of breast prices.  Wings are in demand and holding their value at least into March Madness.  Unlike last year though, there are wings available.  I don’t see chicken coming off the current track through winter.                                                                     GRAINS –Commodities continue to reflect the overall strength in the economy.  Corn closed yesterday at $6.34 up from last week’s $6.20.  South America continue to be a concern with too much rain in one area and drought in another.  With energy prices on the rise demand for ethanol and bio-diesel fuel also push commodities higher.  Soy started up last week and continues higher this week.  Flour does seem to have plateaued for the time being so let’s take that as a win.  DAIRY –  Finally a look at Dairy, butter did top out last week and as often happens with a market running up that fast, the new pricing cannot be sustained.  Butter has giving back $.30 of the $.53 run up since Monday.  Similarly block is off $.09 thru Thursday close and Barrel is down a healthy $.15.  I don’t think we will see much more downside to this market but much better pricing is coming soon.  Savalfoods.com | Find us on Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn