Stay Ahead of Your Needs

BEEF I’ve been saying for weeks to stay ahead of your needs, and I’m going to reiterate, stay ahead of your needs, as demand does seem to be ticking up a bit. Weekly harvest is not moving up to help meet that demand. Last week’s harvest was 528K head, down from the prior week’s 535K head. While middle meats are struggling to move higher, ground beef is on the march higher every day. Retail ground beef is now averaging over $7/# for the first time…ever. I don’t see this backing off any time soon. Increases in chucks and rounds are very modest but they are moving higher again. Thin meats, briskets, flanks, sirloin flap, are showing some weakness, we could see a correction on this over the next couple of weeks, but it will be pretty minor. Staying with the theme, keep ahead of your needs. POULTRY Boneless Skinless breasts decline again for next week. Getting to be a pretty big spread between breast meat and tenderloins, tenderloins holding pretty steady. Wings holding steady next week too. Production continues over last year running almost 3% up from over last year. Breast meat is turning into a great value as the price declines. On the Avian flu beat, a really good week, two new cases totaling 11,600 ducks.  GRAINS Corn declined this week, closing today at $4.62 down from last week’s $4.75 close. Wheat was showing signs of a bit of a run, but that is about done, we could see wheat decline over the next couple weeks. Soy was actually showing some weakness, until Tuesday this week, soy is now on the move higher. This could be short lived, but right now, soy oil is moving up.  PORK Pork bellies bottomed out last week at $104. Today’s close $112. Still a great value for this time of year, I’m buying bacon. Summer is typically a high demand time for butts and ribs, and both are moving up steadily. Loins continue to be a great protein value. DAIRY CME Last week the CME looked like it was going to move overall lower. This week thru Thursdays close, butter is up 3 while block and barrel both declined another 5 cents. We’ll keep watching but I don’t see much to push higher in the short term. Savalfoods.com | Find us on Social Media: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn