THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME

Wednesday Watchlist | October 28th, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Wednesday Watchlist, October 28th. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Smithfield shifting nine hundred thousand hogs a year out of its own production system tells you something. When Fresh Pork loses eighty-nine million dollars while Packaged Meats makes money, you start asking why you're carrying all that upstream risk. That's a business decision, not just a corporate announcement. With the pork cutout down to seventy-three oh nine, I'm not rushing to cover discretionary needs. Let the market show us where the bottom is. Beef is a different headache. Choice at three seventy-two twenty-two looks good until you remember cattle slaughter is down seven point two percent year to date. A high cutout doesn't pay the bills when you can't fill the hooks. Imported lean and Mexican feeder cattle matter, but only when the product actually moves. And I've been beating this like the Cowboys beat the Buffaloes. Cheaper corn and soybean meal don't mean much if you can't get diesel to move the trucks.

HOST: Choice grade cutout at three seventy-two twenty-two, up two seventy-eight. Pork cutout at seventy-three oh nine, down seventy-one cents. Fresh fifties at eighty-six. Imported nineties near three sixteen C-I-F. West Texas Crude at ninety-nine ninety. Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel at four sixty-two.

SHAWN: USDA changed the five-area cattle benchmark. Brazil confirmed a third Newcastle focus. Let the market show us where the bottom is. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.