MARKET NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

August 13, 2026

Livestock

Tyson Foods reported operating income of $362 million in its fiscal third quarter ended June 27th, up from $260 million the year before. The performance was driven by strong quarters in its chicken division ($389 million) and its Prepared Foods division ($312 million). Tyson Beef posted a loss of $142 million for the quarter, and has a loss of $701 million through the first nine months of its fiscal year.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced USDA will invest $25 million toward opening a new NWS Sterile fly dispersal facility in Arizona. She made the announcement during a visit to the port of Douglas, Arizona, which is set to re-open on August 24th. The new Arizona dispersal facility would help provide protection on the Southwestern border. A dispersal facility is also located in Edinburgh, Texas. The main NWS sterile fly production facility is in Panama, and one recently opened in Mexico. Construction continues for another large dispersal facility at Moore Air Base in Edinburg, Texas which is now expected to open next spring.

JBS named Wesley Batista Filho as its next chief executive. Batista Filho is the grandson of the company's founder, and is currently the 34-year-old leader of JBS USA. He will take over the company at the start of 2027. He will succeed Gilberto Tomazoni who has served as CEO since 2018. The US business for JBS generates more than half of the meat packer's roughly $80 billion in annual revenue. JBS has largely offset struggles in its US beef business with stable profits elsewhere in its protein empire. JBS owns Pilgrim's Pride, the second-largest US chicken company and is the second-largest US pork processor. It has massive operations in Brazil and Australia, and also processes other proteins such as lamb and salmon. JBS employs about 280,000 people in more than 20 countries.

The all-fresh beef retail price for July set an all-time record of $9.753 per pound, 11 cents higher than June, and 85 cents higher than July 2025. The average choice retail beef price was quoted at $10.487 per pound, 4 cents higher than the previous month. The average retail pork price in July fell 3 cents from June to $4.888 per pound, and the retail broiler composite price was near steady with June at $2.387 per pound.

Grains

USDA released its annual Land Values Summary on Friday, July 31st. The average value includes not only the value of the land but also farm buildings. The average value of cropland this year reached $6020 per acre, up $150 from a year ago, and up $1080 from 2022, a gain of 21.8%. The average value of pasture reached $2000 an acre this year, up $80 from last year and up $370 from 2022, for a net gain of 22.6%. The highest-priced farmland in the country was in California.

ADM reported net earnings of $908 in its second quarter compared to $219 million a year earlier. The results were driven by a strong performance in its crush and biofuels segments. ADM also announced plans to expand its capacity at four crush facilities to unlock about 700,000 metric tons of oilseed crush capacity, equating to 25 million bushels of additional demand for US soybeans. The four crush facilities are at Frankfort, Indiana; Deerfield, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Spiritwood, North Dakota.

On the August World Supply/Demand report, USDA projected corn world stocks at 298.8 million metric tons for this crop year. For the 2026/27 crop year, USDA projects world corn stocks at 274.7 million metric tons, a year-to-year reduction of 24.1 million metric tons.

USDA reported world soybean ending stocks for this year at 125.1 million metric tons, and 124.2 million metric tons for the 2026/27 crop year.

USDA estimated world wheat ending stocks of 280.2 million metric tons for this year. For the next crop year, USDA has world wheat stocks at 273.3 million metric tons, a decrease of 6.9 million metric tons.

On the August Supply/Demand report, USDA estimated US ending wheat stocks at 920 million bushels, unchanged from the previous month. For the 2026/27 crop year, USDA estimated total wheat production of 1.531 billion bushels, down 434 million bushels from a year ago. The average US wheat yield came in at 47.8 bushels per acre versus 53.3 a year earlier. Ending stocks for the next year are projected at 717 million bushels, a year-to-year decline of 203 million bushels. Kansas wheat production was revised lower again to 191.4 million bushels, a decrease of 155.4 million bushels from 2025.