Weekly beef recap — Oct 11–17: Cattle futures ripped to new highs on razor-thin cash trade, up nearly 7% over 30 sessions. Cash held firm underneath: $220 live/$345 dressed Oct 9, Texas asking $230 mid-week. USDA cut 2026/27 beef output for the 8th straight month, and August feedlot placements were the lowest since 1996. The herd rebuild keeps getting pushed out — replacement heifers are up $300/head. On the import fight: rancher backlash to Trump's Argentine beef plan kept building, but the 90-day tariff holiday is underwhelming in practice — September filled barely half the 100,000 MT quota, and grocery prices barely budged. For the latest market news and pricing, go to agmarketdashpro.com

WHAT TO WATCH NEXT 1–Monday's futures session — does the bullish Cattle on Feed print break through the 61.8% retracement resistance or stall? 2–USDA's new five-state cash trade report launching October 26, aggregating Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas data via Livestock Mandatory Reporting. 3–Mexican feeder cattle flows as the Columbus, N.M., port reopens to cattle imports on October 26. 4–Boxed beef direction after the Friday cutout slide — whether holiday rib buying can offset the $3.68/cwt Choice drop.

Saturday, October 24, 2026 — Here's today's AgMarketDashPro Weekend Edition: September feedlot placements plunged 12.1% to a record low in Friday's Cattle on Feed report — the third straight record-low month, with cash cattle trade a no-show again. agmarketdashpro.com/editions… For the latest market news and pricing, go to agmarketdashpro.com

Cattle on Feed stunner: September placements plunge 12.1% to record low September feedlot placements plunged 12.1% to a record low in Friday's Cattle on Feed report; cash cattle trade stalls, the Choice cutout slides, pork packer margins nearly double, and soybeans rally on Chinese buying — Read more tomorrow morning in the Weekend Edition of AgMarketDashPro.com

Beef cutout slides again — Choice $365.79 (-$3.68), Select $352.69 (+$2.28), spread $13.10. Pork carcass $74.09 (-$1.14). For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

Packers stay in the black as feedlots bleed red Sterling's tracker for the week ended October 17 estimates beef packer margins at positive $155.06 per head while feedlot margins sit at negative $244.70 per head

US now takes more Australian beef than Australians eat themselves For the first time in living memory, the United States has become the single largest customer for Australian beef — overtaking the Australian domestic market itself. Australian eaters have traditionally accounted for around 30 percent of the country's annual beef production, the largest single share by a clear margin, but two years of surging exports into the US has flipped the order. The engine behind the milestone is the US cattle herd, which has dropped to a 70-year low on the back of drought with no rebuild in sight, pulling record volumes of imported beef. Australian shipments to the US reached 410,000 tonnes for the calendar year through Oct. 21 — up 50,000 tonnes, or 15 percent, on the same stretch of last year, which was already near a record. Some analysts expect total 2026 exports to the US to land between 460,000 and 480,000 tonnes. Meat & Livestock Australia puts domestic utilization for the 2025–26 financial year at 565,856 tonnes carcase weight — 384,782 tonnes in boneless shipped-weight terms — while US-bound exports over the same financial year ended June 30 totaled 493,419 tonnes shipped weight. Importantly for Australian cattle producers, the story is about US growth, not a weak home market. MLA retail data for the 12 months to Oct. 4 shows domestic beef value up 12 percent on the same time last year, volume up 1.1 percent, and prices up 10.8 percent — shoppers buying more beef even as it costs double digits more.

CAB Prime sales reach record high Certified Angus Beef moved more than 1.2 billion pounds in its latest fiscal year, down less than one percent despite tight cattle supplies. Prime sales climbed more than 12 percent to a record 63.3 million pounds

Choice cutout slides to $369.47 as packers trim the kill; USDA sets Nov. 30 for the Nogales cattle port reopening; Friday's on-feed report looms. For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

USDA cutout close: Choice $369.47 (-$3.12), Select $350.41 (-$4.93) — spread $19.06. Pork $75.23 (+$0.73). For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

Revised Pork-FOB PLANT

USDA will pool five states into one Southern Plains cash cattle report starting Monday, breaking a data blackout — Dec live cattle still rallied to $231.125. For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

Tyson beef post $1.1 billion operating loss Jeff Schomburger took over as Tyson's president and CEO on October 4 after a 35-year career at Procter & Gamble, a consumer-products background that surprised some industry observers. The company's beef division posted a $1.1 billion operating loss in fiscal 2025, and Tyson is now consolidating beef slaughter around three major plants in Dakota City, Holcomb, and Amarillo.

USDA adds regional cash cattle report for transparency Starting October 26, USDA will pool negotiated cash cattle data from Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas into a single regional report. Negotiated cash trade has thinned to less than 18% of transactions, leaving too few reportable trades to clear confidentiality rules.

Beef: Choice cutout $372.59 (-$0.71), Select $355.34 (-$6.20), spread $17.25. Pork carcass $74.50 (-$4.03). Select took the big hit. For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

USDA daily slaughter: cattle kill 110,000 head — flat vs last week, down ~9,400 from a year ago. Hogs 495,000 head. For the latest market news and pricing, go to agmarketdashpro.com

Beef front page winners — 48 circulars this week: Ground beef: Tom Thumb 80% lean $2.97/lb. Loin: Sedano's sirloin $3.99/lb. Chuck: Fiesta steak $4.97/lb. Round: Super 1 rump roast $4.97/lb. For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

USDA reopens two more border ports to Mexican cattle — Columbus Oct 26, Nogales Nov 30 — despite fresh screwworm cases in NM. Dec live cattle still rallied $2.15 to $230.17. For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/

USDA cutout close: Choice boxed beef $373.30/cwt (+1.72), Select $361.54 (+1.63), spread $11.76. Pork carcass $78.53 (−0.86). For the latest market news and pricing: agmarketdashpro.com/