The Trump Administration announced on October 23rd it
is expanding the tariff rate quote on Argentina beef imports to 80,000
metric tons from the current quota of 20,000 metric tons (about 62
million pound carcass weight). If the quota is filled, it would roughly
be the equivalent to one-third of a week's beef production. Last year,
Argentia beef exports were near 27% of their beef production, with
about 70% of it headed to China.
Effective October 28th, the CME Group increased margin
requirements again on feeder cattle futures to $6,000 for hedge
accounts and $6,600 for spec accounts. Hedge margins for live cattle
futures increased to $3,300 per contract for hedge accounts and $3,630
for spec accounts.
The USDA October Cattle On Feed report was delayed to
the government shutdown. The average guesses for the report were 98% on
feed, September placements at 91%, and September marketings at 96%. If
close, the placement number for September would be the smallest since
2016.
McCarty Family Farms has been named the 2025 Dairy
Producers of the Year at the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin.
Having established their roots in Pennsylvania in 1914, the family
relocated their operation to Rexford in northwest Kansas in 2000. They
oversee the world's largest registered herd of Holsteins. The McCarty's
operate five dairy sites; 3 in Kansas; 1 in Nebraska; and a partnership
dairy in Ohio. McCarty Family Farms, located in Rexford, Kansas, is
their newest location which was completed in 2023. Eight inverted
six-row, tunnel-ventilated free stall barns house 10,000 Holsteins,
which are milked on two 120-stall carousels. The site at Rexford also
employs an aerobic digester, which processes about 260,000 gallons of
manure daily. MFF has also invested in on-site processing with an
evaporative milk condensing plant in 2012. Today, McCarty Family Farms
produces Non-GMO Project Verified milk exclusively for Danone North
America.
Grains
Ag reality television star and Missouri farmer Steve A.
McBee was sentenced on October 16th to 41 months in prison and ordered
to pay $4 million in restitution, after pleading guilty to crop
insurance fraud. McBee was ordered to surrender to authorities on
December 1st, 2025, and the court recommended his prison sentence be
served at a federal prison in Yankton, South Dakota. It was reported in
August that McBee and McBee Family Farms have defaulted on a $1.3
million loan with Rabo AgriFinance, LLC. Then in early October, McBee
sold an 840,000 bushel grain facility in Gallatin, Missouri, to Earth
Touch, a Missouri-based organic wheat company to expand production of
its premium black Einkorn wheat, which is a non-GMO grain sold directly
to consumers, flour mills, and bakeries.
Brazil's CONAB forecast 2025/26 soybean production at
177.639 million metric tons, an increase of 6.17 million metric tons
over last year on a 3.6% increase in acreage. Brazil's total 2025/26
corn production is forecast at 138.603 million metric tons, down
slightly from last year's 139.67 million metric tons crop. CONAB
estimated the 2025 wheat crop at 7.698 million metric tons, up 1.58
million metric tons from the previous report.
Marshall Faith, the founder of Scoular Grain, passed
away at the age of 96. In 1967, Faith purchased a majority interest in
Scoular-Bishop Grain. He would go on to grow Scoular into a global
agribusiness, serving a CEO for 23 years and chairman for 25 years.
Faith was born in Salina, Kansas, and earned a degree in milling
administration from K-State.
The National Association of Wheat Growers announced
that Sam Kieffer has been selected as its new CEO starting November
1st. Kieffer most recently served as vice president of public policy at
the American Farm Bureau Federation. Kieffer is a native of
Pennsylvania, and held several key leadership positions at the
Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission suspended the
grain dealer license of Hansen-Mueller Co. for failure to pay nearly $2
million to about 38 farmers for deliveries of grain to the Omaha-based
business. The PSC said the unpaid deliveries occurred between August
30th and October 21 of this year.