Cattle futures were lower Thursday on likely profit taking and positioning ahead of Friday’s Cattle on Feed and Cattle inventory reports.
Toward the close, Live cattle futures were an average of 84¢ lower. Feeder Cattle futures were an average of $2.39 lower.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade was limited on moderate demand in the Texas Panhandle through Thursday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service. Although too few to trend, there were some early FOB live sales at $231/cwt. Elsewhere, trade was inactive on moderate demand.
Last week, FOB live prices were $230/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle, $230-$231 in Kansas and $240 in the North where dressed delivered prices were $380.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 57¢ higher Thursday afternoon at $368.09. Select was $1.61 higher at $347.00.
Grain futures were higher Thursday but continue to be capped by positive crop progress and weather.
Toward the close and through away Jly contracts, Corn futures were 2¢ to 3¢ higher. Kansas City Wheat futures were 2¢ to 4¢ higher. Soybean futures were mainly 1¢ to 3¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices were mixed Thursday with the most support coming from tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 316 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 4 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 37 points.
Through midafternoon, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) were 39¢ lower to 81¢ higher through the front six contracts.
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Declining labor force participation, lower birth rates and a collapse in net migration are combining to squeeze the U.S. labor supply. The looming labor shortage could begin to weigh on businesses and strain economic growth as soon as later this year, according to a new quarterly report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. With the labor supply about to get tighter, the report suggests businesses and industries operating in rural America should be increasing their focus on technology to overcome labor availability challenges.
“Barring an unforeseen change in labor force participation rates or immigration policies, the pool of available workers is set to shrink precipitously in the next few years,” said Rob Fox, director of CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. “The problem will be even more acute in states with lower population growth in the Upper Midwest, Corn Belt and the Central Plains. Increased adoption of technology, namely AI and robotics, will likely be at the core of any strategy to address the oncoming labor squeeze.”
The labor force participation rate has trended downward since 2000, and the trend may be accelerating. Nearly 2.5 million working-aged people dropped out of the labor force in the past eight months alone. The U.S. fertility rate has plummeted since the Great Financial Crisis in 2008, reducing the number of native-born citizens entering the workforce. The loss of those new workers coincides with baby boom generation retirements, amplifying the impact on the overall labor supply. According to the CoBank report, those two factors, combined with more restrictive immigration policies and aggressive deportation efforts, will put significant stress on the U.S. labor supply with the potential to impede economic growth.