Energies

Live Cattle & Feeder Cattle

Feeder cattle are weaned calves just sent to the feedlots (about 6-10 months old), and live cattle are cattle which have attained a desirable weight (850-1000 pounds for heifers, and 1000-1200 pounds for steers), to be sold to a packer.

Beef is used almost exclusively for human consumption. Different grades of beef are bought by restaurants, schools, hospitals, and for household use. The remaining parts of the cattle are used in the production of leather, soaps, animal feed, camera film, and a variety of other products.

Live Cattle & Feeder Cattle Futures Analysis

Lean Hogs

Lean Hogs are hogs of the proper weight to be brought to market. After the hog is slaughtered, roughly twenty percent of the meat goes towards ham and approximately seventeen percent of carcass weight ends up as pork loins. The belly of the hog, which is cured and sliced to produce bacon, accounts for another fifteen percent of the carcass weight. The meat industry accounts for roughly twenty percent of the moneys spent on food and beverages in the United States.

Lean Hogs Futures Analysis

Pork Bellies

Pork Bellies, or the cured carcass of a slaughtered pig, usually accounts for roughly 15 percent of the carcass weight of the hog. The belly is removed from the carcass and cured in a heavy salty brine solution and put in cold storage to eventually be sliced into bacon. Bacon, the end result of the pork belly, is unique among meat products in that it has no substitutes. The major factors affecting pork belly prices is the number of hogs being slaughtered and the demand for bacon.

Pork Bellies Futures Analysis

Butter 

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh cream. It consists of an emulsion of water and milk proteins in a matrix of fat, with over 80% being fat. It is used as a condiment and for cooking in much the same ways as vegetable oils or lard.

Butter Futures Analysis