Howdy, daylight burners. Friday weekly wrap of the Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report.

Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins bailed on her Douglas, Arizona screwworm facility ribbon-cutting with no reschedule while the parasite sits about 80 miles off the Texas border. Cattle finally look like they're building a floor, crude stayed hot even with a little profit-taking, and the Farm Bill picked up a stack of amendments headed into a floor vote next week.

We run the full board: Markets (live cattle, feeders, hogs, corn, beans, wheat, diesel, crude); Cattle/Beef (herd at multi-decade lows, Cargill Milwaukee closure, boxed beef inversion 3rd week in a row); Sale Barn Pulse (Joplin's monster run, light receipts at OKC West, Beaver County replacements screaming tight supply into 2027); Inputs/Energy (diesel still a punishing line item, fertilizer ugly with urea feeling the Hormuz war-risk premium); War Reel (tanker seizures, insurance math, and what it does to your fuel bill and freight); Rural Americana (one rural hospital win, one gut-punch closure, plus a broadband bright spot); Policy/Macro (Farm Bill H.R. 7567 amendments, DOJ packer probe, and Rollins' canceled border trip).

Lone Star Stockyards – Wildorado, Texas. Straight talk, fair shake, cattle sold right. Sale every Tuesday at 11 AM Central. Spring catalog open through May 30 at lonestarstockyards.com.

Disclaimer: Markets move. Numbers quoted are settlement closes for Friday, April 24, 2026. This show is for information and a little entertainment, not investment advice.

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Cargill is shutting down its Milwaukee beef plant and cutting 221 jobs because the U.S. cattle herd is too tight to keep every old kill floor fed. The board is skittish, packer margins are ugly, and diesel is still high enough to hurt.

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President Trump kicks the can on the Iran ceasefire, and Iran answers by grabbing two more ships in the Strait of Hormuz while firing on a third. EIA prints a surprise crude draw — 1.9 million barrels pulled when the street was looking for a 2.2 million barrel build — and diesel is sitting at $5.511 at the pump with WTI riding $91–$92. Meanwhile the cattle board has printed five straight red days, June live at $242.875, even as cash holds $248 and boxed beef stays inverted with Select still a buck over Choice.

On today's Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report for Wednesday, April 22, 2026, we walk through:

• Why live cattle is correcting on paper while the country trade and the cutout refuse to blink.

• What a 4.1 million barrel bullish swing in one EIA print means for your diesel contract and fertilizer bill.

• How Superior Livestock just sold a record 57,077 head and why 750-pound steers at $408 and 500-pound calves at $552.50 do not look like a "market top" in the country.

• The war reel out of Hormuz, what "operationally closed" really means when Iran controls 20% of global crude flow, and how many seized ships it takes to put WTI at $95–$100.

• DTN's latest fertilizer board — anhydrous back over $1,000, urea up 34% month over month — plus why every major input on your balance sheet runs through somebody else's choke point.

• Rural Americana: five stories that'll make you feel better about the next generation, and three gut punches from rural hospitals, drought, and school consolidation.

• Policy and macro: Farm Bill clock, DOJ packer probe, HPAI in dairy, screwworm watch, USMCA review, Trump–Xi summit, H-2A wages, and why nobody is cutting your operating note rate anytime soon.

Tone calls to close it out:

• Cattle board — bearish near term, oversold and due a snap-back if cash holds.

• Cash cattle — firm.

• Cutout — bullish, with broad-based beef demand.

• Corn — bullish bias. Beans — neutral. Wheat — bullish on KC drought.

• Crude and diesel — bullish, lock in if you haven't.

• Gold and silver — bullish, fear trade and industrial bid both on.

Lock your diesel, watch packer bids like a hawk, track the ship count in Hormuz — and remember, it's a "don't screw up" market, not a "get rich" market.

Move your ass, we're burnin' daylight.

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Cattle futures are bleeding red, but the country trade is still hot as a branding iron. On today's Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report for Tuesday, April 21, 2026, we walk through the seventh straight down day in live cattle while OKC National, Joplin, Salina, Beaver County, and Lone Star are still moving big runs at stout money.

June fats closed 243.50, down 8.50 off last week's record, but 500-pound heifers are bringing 503 and running-age pairs are tagging 4,700 a head in the country – the kind of dissonance a spreadsheet doesn't explain. We pick up Day Two of the DOJ's criminal antitrust probe into Tyson, Cargill, JBS, and National Beef and talk through how that headline is weighing on the board even with cattle on feed, placements, and slaughter all saying "tight." Boxed beef is still inverted with Select trading over Choice, and we break down what that weird twist means for packer margins and rancher leverage.

New editorial direction kicks in this episode: less war, more dirt road – more sale barn, more horse market, more rural Americana.

Inside this show:

• Markets Flash – live cattle, feeder cattle, lean hogs, corn, beans, wheat, crude, diesel, fertilizer, Fed funds, prime, gold, and silver, all run quick and dirty.

• Cattle & Beef Deep Dive – futures correction, DOJ headline risk, consumer pushback on 9-dollar burger and 22-dollar ribeyes, boxed beef inversion Day 2, cattle on feed, slaughter pace, and a 73-year-low herd with a Mexican feeder import ban still in place.

• Sale Barn Pulse – receipts and price tone from Lone Star Wildorado, Oklahoma National, OKC West, Joplin Regional, Salina Livestock, and Beaver County Stockyards, including 533-pound heifers at 503 and running-age pairs up to 4,700.

• Horse Market – NCHA Super Stakes winners in Fort Worth, Lone Star Spring Catalog sale prices, Heritage Place Winter Mixed averages, and what they say about ranch geldings and performance-horse demand.

On the input side, we look at WTI holding 90.88 after the Iran spike, diesel still north of 5.40, and why that 847-dollar urea number may be the floor through summer if Persian Gulf ammonia and urea shipments get hung up. We hit Fed funds, prime, and why Powell is likely to sit on his hands while your operating note stays north of 7.75 percent.

War Reel is trimmed to three minutes: Iran ceasefire clock, tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz way below normal, ship insurance jumping, and what that means for your fuel bill and fertilizer ticket – not another drone-footage highlight reel.

Rural Americana closes it out with six stories you won't see at the top of the hour: Montana and North Dakota FFA kids stepping up, a Wisconsin farmer co-op landing a USDA grant, USDA killing 49 of 50 ILCMA land-access projects, a rural ER closure in Jacksonville, Arkansas, the Nebraska Rural Response Hotline lighting up again, and a 150-year-old Kansas newspaper that refuses to die.

Policy and macro on the back end: Farm Bill amendment deadline, CCC borrowing authority, tariffs baked into your iron, land getting financialized out from under young producers, plus "On This Day," NBA playoffs, MLB, and Better Barrel Races in Oklahoma City.

If you or somebody you know is in a bind, write this down and pass it on: Nebraska Rural Response Hotline – 1-800-464-0258. Free, confidential, since 1984.

Move your ass — we're burnin' daylight.

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Hormuz opened, oil crashed, then Iran slammed the door shut again and the U.S. Navy shot a hole in an Iranian cargo ship for good measure — all while the latest Cattle on Feed report quietly confirmed the bull story for cattle. In this episode of the Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report, we walk through a “cautiously bullish, elevated risk” market: COF placements down 7.67% year over year, on feed down 0.53%, but futures and feeders still selling off for a third straight session.

We hit cash cattle at 248 live and 388 dressed, feeders getting hammered with the CME Index back to 377.67, and boxed beef demand strong enough to collapse the Choice/Select spread to 54 cents. Then we swing through corn under the 4.50 pain line, an 11.45% faceplant in WTI on Friday, and why that diesel relief may be short‑lived if Iran makes good on its retaliation threats once the ceasefire clock runs out Wednesday.

War Reel covers the rapid escalation in the Strait of Hormuz — from “world exhale” on Friday to ship seizures and canceled talks by Monday — and what it means for your fuel bill, fertilizer, and grain flows. We wrap with the Farm Bill timeline, new sanctions and USDA rules, a brutal Southeast/Southern Plains drought that’s driving herd liquidation, and the same old reminder: this is a don’t‑screw‑up market, not a get‑rich market.

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Cattle markets take a breather after Tuesday's all-time high of $253.60 on April live cattle. June fats down almost $3 at midday, feeders hammered $1-$4 on higher corn. But don't panic — cash hasn't traded yet this week, Fed Cattle Exchange listed 1,222 head with bids $2.46-$2.48 and not a single animal sold. This is a cash-led bull market and sellers are holding the line.

The Hormuz blockade expanded this morning to weapons interdiction. 13 vessels turned back, 10 Iranian-flagged tankers rebuffed, 10,000 US forces active in the blockade. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: "locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure." Brent bounced nearly 4% to $98.61. National diesel at $5.62 — twenty cents off the all-time record. Ceasefire has 5-6 days left; round-two talks possibly this weekend in Pakistan.

PLUS: Secretary Brooke Rollins reportedly targeting July 7 phased reopening of the Mexican border to feeder cattle starting at Douglas, AZ. Screwworm sterile-fly facility breaking ground in South Texas.

Grains: May corn $4.51¼ up 8¢, beans up 9-11¢, wheat fractionally higher. Drought steady at 50.18% of the Lower 48; relief rains across parts of TX, OK, LA, and the Midwest, but the Southwest stays dry. Severe weather returns Friday and Saturday — tornadoes, baseball-sized hail, and damaging winds from eastern New Mexico to South Central Missouri, broadening across the Southern and Central Plains Saturday.

Fence Post Politics: Farm Bill stalled in the Senate, expires Sept 30; Section 232 tariffs still biting animal pharma; USDA FY27 proposal cuts 19%.

On This Day: Donald Forsha Jones (b. 1890) — father of double-cross hybrid corn. 1996 — Oprah's mad cow segment triggers the Texas cattlemen's lawsuit (Cactus Feeders' Paul Engler leads; they lose).

Sports: A's split four with Texas, 10-9 and tied for the division lead. White Sox in town tomorrow — Aaron Savale on the mound vs. Munetaka Murakami.

Sponsors: Lone Star Stockyards (Wildorado, TX) — Foster Brothers Bull Sale Friday April 17. Atkinson Livestock (Atkinson, NE) — special bred cows & pairs auction Tuesday April 21.

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Don't let your butt crack, and move your ass — we're burnin' daylight.

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Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report on Burnin' Daylight. Cattle just printed 252-dollar highs, feeders are hot again, boxed beef finally quit that upside-down nonsense, and diesel's sniffing 5.60 with no sign of shame.

Nebraska's wearing burn scars, 40,000 head are out of place, USDA's talking about cracking the Mexico feeder tap, screwworm's edging north, and BLM swears there's 24 million acres of federal grass sitting there if you're stubborn enough to chase it.

We're not here to cheerlead the board. We're here to walk through what this mix of record cattle, hot fuel, and busted-up country actually does to your cost of gain, your grazing bill, and your cattle check -- so you don't turn the best market you've seen in years into the dumbest set of decisions you've ever made.

Also the new camera setup only made the camera look better. The operator remains unchanged.

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Jake and Matt are finally back and ripping around the league for their (slightly late) 2026 MLB “Opening Day” special. They start with the Detroit Tigers: last year’s brutal division collapse, the playoff run that followed, and why a roster built around Scooble, McGonigle, Colt Keith, Parker Meadows and a deep bullpen might make them the team to beat in the AL Central this year. From there they hit all the early storylines hardcore baseball fans actually care about: Juan Soto and Brent Rooker already hitting the IL, Justin Verlander’s latest setback, George Springer’s busted toe, and whether A.J. Hinch is leaning too hard into matchups and analytics with the arms he’s got.

Next up is a full lap around MLB: Dodgers and Padres both looking like juggernauts, Sasaki’s redemption arc after last year’s struggles, Shohei back on the mound, and why the Pirates, Royals, D‑backs and Padres all feel like “are they for real?” teams two weeks into the season. Jake and Matt break down how the AL and NL Central really stack up, why the Rockies and White Sox are suddenly kind of fun to watch, and what Murakami, Luis Robert and some of the other imports and young bats might do over a full 162. They wrap with way‑too‑early division and playoff picks, some degenerate betting talk, and a little youth baseball life mixed in. If you’re trying to lock in on the 2026 season without sitting through four different studio shows, this is your episode.

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Crude finally gave a little back, but diesel didn't, wheat got drunk again, and the cattle market still refuses to blink. In today's Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report, we walk through day two after the Hormuz shock: WTI backing off into the low 90s, diesel still north of $5.60, wheat ripping 8% in a day, and live cattle camped out in record country.

We hit the board first -- April and June live, heavy feeder trade with the CME index closing the gap, hogs stuck in the mud, corn and beans acting tired, and HRW wheat riding a rented war-and-drought rally. Then it's the sale barn pulse: Atkinson Livestock, OKC West, Clovis, Torrington, Billings, and Utah all putting real-money tags on calves, replacer females, and bulls in a 75-year-low cow herd.

On the horse side, the A Man About A Horse cull index ticks higher for the first time in a long while, broke ranch geldings hold, registered ranch-broke horses trend up, and projects get cheaper -- same message as the cattle ring: finished product gets the check, "someday" gets punished.

We close with crude, diesel, the E15 waiver, fertilizer carrying the Hormuz premium, and a war reel from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea and Black Sea. Then On This Day takes us back to Black Sunday 1935 and The Grapes of Wrath in 1939.

It's not a get-rich market. It's a don't-screw-it-up market.

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Live cattle just printed an all-time record — $251.77 on the continuous chart. Cash cattle in Iowa hit $250. And crude oil ripped above $104 after the U.S. Navy blockaded Iranian ports. Diesel's north of $5.60 and headed to $6. Urea is up 46% year-over-year. It's a record-revenue, record-cost market — and the guys who keep their head are the ones who'll still be ranching next year.

Today's show:

• Livestock — June live cattle $249.20 (contract high), feeders $374.82, hogs $103.72 (4th straight down), cash cattle $250 in Iowa
• Grains — Corn flat at $4.40¼ (faded the rally), beans down 13½¢, wheat up double digits on the war bid
• Energy & Inputs — WTI $99.08, diesel $5.64/gal, urea $838/ton, DAP $863/ton, fertilizer supply at 75% of normal
• Rates & Metals — Fed funds 3.50–3.75%, prime 6.75%, gold $4,742/oz
• Cattle Deep Dive — JBS Greeley strike resolved (93% ratification, 3,800 workers back), boxed beef inverted (Select above Choice), Cattle on Feed report Friday
• War Reel — U.S. naval blockade operational, Hormuz exports down 76%, 400+ tankers stranded, Houthi threat to Bab el-Mandeb, fertilizer crisis
• Policy — Farm Bill stalled, new federal grazing MOU, Colorado River water cuts, WOTUS update
• On This Day — April 13, 1860: First Pony Express rider arrives in Sacramento

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