Good Morning from Allendale, Inc. with the early morning commentary for April 24, 2020.
Grain Markets are lower this morning, though they hope to end the week on a winning streak while continuing to weigh supply vs. demand in a world trying to escape economic lockdown.
Corn export sales of 670,825 metric tonnes were noted on yesterday’s report. 726,732 was old crop and a cancellation of 55,907 new. This was within the 650,000 – 1,400,000 trade expectation. Soybean export sales totaled 345,421 tonnes today, 344,921 for old crop. This was under the 350,000 – 1,050,000 trade expectation. Wheat export sales were mixed at 399,869 tonnes, 244,654 for old and 155,215 for new. This was within the 300,000 – 800,000 tonne trade expectation.
Low water levels in the Parana River in Argentina is forcing exporters to load ships with less grain/soy, further limiting the country’s exports.
ADM will temporarily stop ethanol production at corn dry mill facilities in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Columbus, Nebraska due to lower gasoline demand.
FranceAgriMer rated 58% of France’s wheat crop in good to excellent condition, a drop of 3% from the previous estimate.
China is studying ways that it could accelerate purchases of U.S. farm goods to meet its phase-one
trade deal commitments after the coronavirus delayed some imports. (Bloomberg)
Weekly jobless claims last week totaled 4.4 million. That is three weeks of declines. However, the five week total comes to 26 million.
Tyson Foods announced it will temporarily stop production at the Pasco, Washington beef plant. All employees will be virus tested. Pasco has a 2,300 head per day capacity running full-time.
The weekly Actual Slaughter report noted for the 4/11 kill week steer weights fell from +2.8% year/year to +2.5%. Heifer weights rose from +2.6% to 3.0%.
USDA Cattle on Feed report will be released today at 2 p.m. CDT. Average analysts forecast On feed at – 5.1% under last year, Placements at -21.1% under last year, and Marketings are seen +12% over last year.
Weekly beef export sales were a bit weak at 11,217 tonnes. That was the lowest of the marketing year. Year to date sales are 8% over last year. The virus impact on wholesale beef may restrict sales. Weekly pork sales were stronger than expected at 39,775 tonnes. This was more than double last year’s sale in the same week. Of interest, China only bought 9,740 tonnes.
The weekly Actual Slaughter report for 4/11 showed a decline in market hog weights, from +0.5% year/year to now equal with last year. Many producers would argue with that.
More than 5,000 U.S. meat and food-processing workers have been infected with or exposed to the new coronavirus, and 13 have died, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union said. (Reuters)
Dressed beef values were higher with choice up 8.54 and select up 11.87. The Feeder cattle index is 120.41. Pork cut-out values were up 3.39.