THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME

Wednesday Watchlist | October 14th, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Wednesday Watchlist, October 14th. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: USDA says we're going to have more corn. That's good news. Now somebody needs to get it out of the field. Iowa has harvested just fourteen percent of its corn crop against a five-year average of thirty-four percent. Diesel futures just jumped more than twenty-one cents a gallon. Anybody celebrating cheaper feed without checking basis and freight is only doing half the math. I've never seen a truck or tractor run on a USDA forecast. A softer beef cutout doesn't create more cattle. More hogs don't guarantee somebody wants the ham. The market doesn't pay you for reading the headline. It pays you for knowing what happens next.

HOST: Choice closed Tuesday at three seventy-five fifteen, down forty-one cents. Select at three fifty-three sixty-seven. Year-to-date cattle slaughter is down seven point four percent. Pork cutout fell two twenty-nine to eighty sixty-eight after Monday's rise. Hams dropped six ninety-nine. Bellies gained three forty-seven. Hams and bellies are two different markets. Chicken is generally steady, with year-to-date slaughter up one point three percent.

SHAWN: Fresh eighty-fives were three twenty-two. Fresh fifties ninety cents. No reportable national fresh nineties. December corn settled at four eighty-three. Meal at three sixty-three twenty, down five fifty. Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel jumped twenty-one cents. Iowa corn is fourteen percent harvested against a thirty-four percent average. Beef's near-term softness doesn't solve a cattle shortage. Pork has opportunities in weaker primals, not an across-the-board markdown. Watch delivered cost. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.