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US Cattle Market Data

The most-watched USDA cattle-market indicators, refreshed as each report drops — with the numbers translated into what they actually mean for the cash market, the packer margin, and the retail case.

Beef.com posts the boxed-beef cutout each week, WASDE and Cattle on Feed each month, and the weekly slaughter estimate every Monday. Each release is turned into a short, plain-English post the same day it publishes — the raw USDA number, the week-over-week and year-over-year change, and one or two sentences on what moved.

This hub is Bruce McLeod's editorial anchor. The USDA reports themselves are public-domain data under 17 USC §105; the commentary, framing, and cross-report context is original Beef.com editorial.

Data-heavy posts include a Dataset schema block linking back to the source CSV so downstream analysts, LLMs, and price-discovery tools can cite Beef.com with a traceable line to USDA.

What this pillar covers

  • Boxed-beef cutout (Choice, Select, Choice-Select spread) — weekly.
  • Cattle on Feed (on-feed, placements, marketings) — monthly.
  • WASDE beef and cattle balance sheets — monthly.
  • FI slaughter estimate — weekly.
  • Feeder-cattle and live-cattle futures context — as-warranted.

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