Episode Details

Markets are frisky, diesel's a bandit, and DC is still DC. Today's Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report for March 24, 2026 walks through: live cattle in the mid-230s, feeders pushing the upper half of their recent range, and corn sagging with national cash around 4.18.

USDA's February slaughter report still shows cattle slaughter down about 7% and beef production down around 4% year-over-year, with heavier carcass weights trying to close the gap. Boxed beef has Choice around 400 and Select just under 393.

The real squeeze is fuel: U.S. on-highway diesel is sitting a little above $5.00 a gallon, roughly a dollar over EIA's full-year forecast, and up about 4% week-over-week, which quietly rewrites every freight, hay, fertilizer, and feedyard bill in your budget.

Also in this episode:

- Freedom Framework scoreboard on market distortion and regulatory drag

- Underreported story: how diesel is quietly running every ranch in America

- On This Day - March 24: Koch discovers the TB bug (1882), the Exxon Valdez spill (1989), NATO's Kosovo air campaign (1999), and National Ag Day 2026 with the theme "Together We Grow"

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