New owners of Fed Cattle Exchange have changes on the menu

https://www.tsln.com/news/new-owners-of-fed-cattle-exchange-have-changes-on-the-menu/

• For the last four years, the Fed Cattle Exchange was an online bidding platform that gave cattle feeders the option of listing pens of cattle for a Wednesday bidding contest.
• Recently Central Stockyards, LLC, purchased the Fed Cattle Exchange.
• Central Stockyards is owned by Percipio Partners, LLC, a private equity firm invested into farmland, real estate and rural companies. The firm is based out of Omaha, NE.
• According to Forrest Roberts, CEO of Central Stockyards and former CEO of NCBA, the company plans to give cattle feeders more selling options to help improve value discovery for fed cattle.
  • Roberts said there are a lot of people frustrated beyond what he has ever seen in his entire life, regarding the lack of transparent price discovery through negotiated trade for fed cattle.
  • He feels that this acquisition will be a huge win for the industry long term if Central Stockyards can provide a robust form of price discovery.
• Roberts stated that Central Stockyards has some near-term changes in mind for Fed Cattle Exchange.
  • Soon the Fed Cattle Exchange will offer more options than just the current live cash bid and buy option, with a few small photos of the pens of cattle on the website.
  • Central Stockyards is almost ready to roll out a negotiated grid of “bid the grid” option for sellers and buyers. The grid will be loosely based off of the 2021 CME specs.
  • Sellers will soon be able to provide more information about their cattle including videos, testimonials from the cow-calf producers, feed details and more, when they reveal the new Central Stockyards site later this year.
    • Roberts noted that if there is a set of Mexican origin cattle that will be noted. Integrity will be at the forefront going forward. The company wants to make sure the buyer receives full transparency.
  • Roberts stated that there is a chance that Central Stockyards may provide selling options for feeder and bred cattle in the future.

Cattle placements jump 11 percent

https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/cattle-placements-jump-11/

• According to the USDA, placements of cattle into feedlots in the month of July were 1.893 million head, 11 percent more than July 2019.
  • Most of these placements weighed between 700 and 900 pounds and will be marketed this winter and through early spring.
• Marketings of fed cattle during July totaled 1.99 million head, one percent below a year ago.
• Total number of cattle on feed as of August 1^st was 11.284 million head, two percent above year ago levels. This is the highest August 1 inventory since the series began in 1996.

Expanded price limits

https://www.nationalbeefwire.com/national-feeder-cattle-report

• Last week, the CME announced proposed changes to live and feeder cattle futures price limits.
• Pending approval by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, these changes will be implemented on October 5^th, 2020.
• The changes amend daily price limits to adjust the current, initial daily price limit for Live Cattle futures from $3.00 to $4.00/cwt. Feeder Cattle futures will go from $4.50 to $5.00/cwt.
• The expanded price limit for Live Cattle will now be $6.00/cwt. The Feeder Cattle expanded price limit will now be $7.50/cwt.

Boxed beef prices

www.nationalbeefwire.com

• Choice boxed beef: 225.94 (+0.56)
• Select boxed beef: $208.99 (+2.68)