THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME

Thursday Margin Monitor | October 22nd, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Thursday Margin Monitor, October 22nd. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: I don't care how strong the rib is if the rest of the carcass isn't pulling its weight. That's where I think this beef market is getting tested. Cattle remain scarce. That is real. But scarcity doesn't force a restaurant to keep a steak on the menu, a retailer to feature the same cut, or a grinder to ignore imported lean. Customers have choices, and they're using them. Look at pork. Bellies just took a hard hit. Chicken production is expanding. Both are competing for the same food dollar while beef packers are trying to protect the value of every animal they harvest. You can't buy the headline and hope the customer follows. You have to know which product will move, what it really costs you, and how long you'll own it. The profit is in the decision, not the prediction.

HOST: Choice closed at three seventy-two fifty-nine, down seventy-one cents. Select fell six twenty to three fifty-five thirty-four. Fresh nineties at three eighty-five F-O-B. Pork cutout at seventy-four fifty, down four oh three. Bellies at seventy-seven sixty-six. Chicken breast at one seventeen. Diesel at six twenty-eight.

SHAWN: Kayem is recalling about one point five eight million pounds. Texas confirmed screwworm in an elk in Pecos County. Brazil faces new poultry restrictions. Margin is determined by actual product economics, not the headline. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.