THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME

Thursday Margin Monitor | October 8th, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Thursday Margin Monitor, October 8th. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: I think most of us know somebody dealing with alpha-gal syndrome. One tick bite, and suddenly they can't enjoy a steak, hamburger or bacon. So when I read about people receiving acupuncture treatments in their ears and reportedly eating red meat again, it caught my attention. Am I skeptical? Absolutely. I'm not convinced acupuncture is a cure, but I sure hope there's something to it. The science still has a lot to prove. But if there's a chance to put steak back on somebody's plate, I'm pulling for it.

HOST: Fresh nineties averaged four oh two. South American frozen nineties were indicated around three oh five to three twelve, a ninety to ninety-seven cent gap. Some formulations still limit frozen product to fifteen or twenty percent. Cheaper imports can pressure the market. They can't replace every fresh pound. Eighty-fives three forty-three. Fifties eighty-seven cents. Choice cutout fell three thirty-one to three seventy-five sixty-two. Select fell two thirteen. Sterling has feedlots losing about three hundred forty a head and packers making about one hundred eighty-four. Same cattle market. Very different margins.

SHAWN: Prime tonnage is up about twenty-five percent, and the Prime premium over Choice widened to thirty-eight thirty-four. Chicken thighs firmed while breast, wings and tenderloins weakened. Hog slaughter was four hundred ninety-five thousand. The pork cutout fell two thirteen to eighty-one seventy-one, with bellies down six sixty-four. Farrow-to-finish margins narrowed to about nineteen dollars a head. Brazil has hit China's quota wall, and another one hundred thousand metric tons of U.S. quota opened October 1st. December corn five oh two. Meal three sixty-five eighty, up eleven dollars. November West Texas Crude eighty-eight twenty-eight, down a dollar sixteen. Scarcity still sets the cost of cattle. Competition determines what buyers will pay for the beef. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.