Posts

Visualizing U.S. Fruit and Vegetable Inflation During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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As part of the MSU Extension Apprenticeship program this summer, I worked with Josie Nasekos, a Senior in our Environmental Economics and Sustainability major. Her research and Extension project aimed to help the public visualize U.S. fruit and vegetable inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’re interested in this topic, please check out the blog post below in which she summarizes her findings so far. … Continue reading

Knowledge and Use of Contracts, Digital Platforms, and Blockchain Technology by Small Scale Specialty Crop Growers: Focus Group Findings

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In collaboration with AgLaunch and its Farmer Network, we conducted an online focus group with four small-scale, specialty-crop producers. Insights from the discussion may provide helpful information for Extension educators regarding farmers’ views and use of marketing contracts/agreements and digital trading, marketing, and payment platforms, including their experience trialing the features of different platforms and the advantages and disadvantages of the platforms used. … Continue reading

Did Pumpkins Cost You More in October 2020 Than in Previous Years?

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It depends on whether you will be carving a jack-o’-lantern, decorating, or baking a pumpkin pie. And if carving a jack-o’-lantern, on what size. The U.S. Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) surveys large retailers, and every week, publishes a national retail report of advertised specialty crop prices ending during a given period, usually an almost 2-week window. … Continue reading

What Can Google Searches Tell Us About Changes in Consumer Behavior Toward Food and Plants Beyond COVID-19?

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Google Trends is an online tool that allows you to analyze the popularity of Google Search inquiries. If you enter a search term, the site randomly samples Google Search’s massive database to produce indicators of Google users’ past interest in that term. For a given region and time range, the site calculates an index between 0 and 100 for each point in time and produces a chart of interest over time, … Continue reading

September Seasonal Price Impacts

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The past few weeks we have focused on market reactions to the Tyson beef plant fire (read again HERE, HERE, and HERE). This event negatively impacted cattle prices and will remain a key topic throughout the Fall. But this is far from the only factor affecting cattle prices, … Continue reading

Price and Production Impacts

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Special Note: News over the weekend reports that the U.S. and Japan have agreed in principle to a deal that would reduce tariffs on U.S. beef exports to Japan. There are few details now and the agreement is not formal yet, but overall it is great news for the beef industry. I’ve discussed how important a deal with Japan would be many times in this blog (see here,  … Continue reading

Week in Review and a Look Ahead

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Wow, what a week. The fire at the Tyson and the crop production report pushed markets into a frenzy during the first few days of the week. Fears of a slowdown in slaughter pushed beef prices higher and live cattle prices lower. This drove up the margins for packers and gave a strong incentive to absorb some of the lost slaughter caused by the fire. … Continue reading

Some Hard Data on Lab-Grown Meat

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Lab-grown meat (and plant-based meat) has been a major topic of discussion in cattle groups over the past few years. Most of this discussion has centered around questions and speculative answers. The first questions centered around “Can beef really be grown in a lab?” The answer to that one has proven to be yes. The next logical question is “how much will it cost?” … Continue reading

Cattle Cycle Dynamics

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There were no big surprises in the recent July 1 Cattle Inventory report. The beef cow herd was estimated to be the same as a year ago while the number of heifers held back for replacements was lower than a year ago. These estimates were in line with what was expected following the January report.

There has been plenty written about the current cattle cycle topping out and this report was another piece of evidence supporting that story. … Continue reading

June Feeding Closeouts Dip into the Red

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Cattle feeding closeouts turned negative in June for the first month in 2019. The Livestock Marketing Information Center (LMIC) calculations show the June closeout was -$60.66 per animal sold for feeding-out a 750-pound steer in a commercial Southern Plains feedlot. Similarly, calculations by Iowa State University (ISU) for steers placed as yearlings and calves and sold at slaughter-weight in June were also negative. … Continue reading