The July 1 Cattle Inventory report was largely within industry expectations. All cattle and calves were about even with a year ago, beef cows were down slightly, along with the total cowherd.  Steers over 500 pounds increased the most, up 300 thousand head, about 2% up from last year.

The latest milk production report showed an interesting trend revising the U.S. dairy herd lower in May estimates, and fell to 9.35 million head, a 35,000 head decline from the previous quarter-end. This is in the face of some extremely volatile milk prices throughout 2020.  The latest Agricultural Prices released by USDA NASS showed national all milk prices in May to be $13.60 per cwt.

The National Composite (Whole Bird) Weighted Average Broiler price has been under pressure since the start of the year. Every week this year has been below the same week last year, dipping as low as $0.50 per pound in mid-April, the lowest price on record since the series started in 2009. Since the low, prices have regained ground tracking in the mid to low $0.70 per pound range since late May, which is still well below 2019 levels and the five-year average.