Monday's decline in wheat hurt corn. Turnaround Tuesday has a lot of potential. Winter has come back. Dec. was one of the worst cattle feeding months ever in the northern Plains and Corn Belt. Snow doesn't bother cattle until it melts, turning to mud.
Arctic cold driven by wind is what devastates cattle gains.
The southern Plains escaped the initial blast of winter. Feedlots in the north, however, wrote gains off during Dec. Cattle continue under stress, death loss has exceeded normal overwhelming rendering capacity, and declining carcass weights of northern cattle are now pulling the average lower. The feedlot industry had enjoyed over 2 years of some of the best feeding performance it's ever experienced until Nov. and Dec. ended the record run of gains. The Jan. thaw gave feedlots and cattle a much needed reprieve, temporary though it may have been. We sell cattle by the pound, not by the head.