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Published on:

28th Sep 2026

THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME | Monday Market Open | September 28, 2026

THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME

Monday Market Open | September 28, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Monday Market Open, September twenty-eighth. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Here is the irony in beef this morning. We are finally reopening another valve for cattle supply just as a new operational risk is showing up at the packing plant. Santa Teresa is open again. Four hundred eight head on day one is not enough to change the market. Stepped-up federal immigration enforcement is disrupting labor and cattle movement across parts of the Southern Plains. Two days do not make a trend. In a cattle market already short on headcount, it does not take much operational disruption to matter.

HOST: Hales estimates heifer slaughter at one hundred thirty-four thousand five hundred — the lowest non-holiday week since May twenty twenty. Year-to-date heifer slaughter eight hundred eleven thousand below last year. Steers down five hundred fifty-two thousand. Weekly cattle slaughter four hundred eighty-four thousand, down thirteen point four percent year over year.

SHAWN: Packer calculated margins plus one sixty to plus one eighty-five — sixth straight positive week. Fresh nineties four ten. Fifties eighty-eight cents. Cheap fat does not make lean cheap. D H S said ice was not conducting worksite operations in Kansas. The response cited by the Texas Tribune did not address Texas or Oklahoma. Cattle availability and cattle actually getting through the plant are two different things. Watch the females, the border, and the plant. Stay disciplined.

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Shawn Sparks, The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.

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About the Podcast

Protein Pulse Podcast
Your Daily Market Update on All Things Protein.
The Protein Pulse Podcast delivers concise, commercially focused protein market intelligence for buyers, sellers, traders, procurement leaders, processors, and executives across the beef, pork, chicken, feed, and global protein markets. Each episode translates USDA data, market pricing, slaughter trends, trade flows, imports, feed costs, policy developments, and supply-chain signals into clear, practical market context. The focus is simple: cut through the noise, explain what the numbers mean, and give protein professionals the market context they need before making their next decision. Your Daily Market Update on All Things Protein.

About your host

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Shawn Sparks

Shawn Sparks is the founder of The Protein Pulse and a protein procurement, sourcing, and trading executive with more than two decades of experience across beef, pork, chicken, and the broader food supply chain.

His career has included senior procurement and purchasing leadership roles at some of the largest food companies in the industry, with responsibility for billions of dollars in annual protein spend and complex domestic and global sourcing programs.

Today, Shawn leads The Sparks Group, Inc. and Great Plains Protein LLC, where he works across protein sourcing, trading, procurement strategy, supplier development, and market intelligence.

Through The Protein Pulse Podcast, Shawn brings a practical, commercial perspective to the protein markets — translating USDA data, pricing, slaughter trends, imports, exports, feed costs, policy, and supply-chain developments into clear context for buyers, sellers, traders, processors, and industry leaders.

His focus is simple: cut through the noise, explain what the numbers mean, and help protein professionals understand what matters next.

The Protein Pulse — Your Daily Market Update on All Things Protein.