Farm Bill Passes, Cash Cattle Smash Records — Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report (05/01/26)

Friday, May 1, 2026 — two days folded into one. We didn’t get a Thursday tape out, but the news sure as hell didn’t slow down for us. Here’s what moved while you were doctoring calves and fixing fence: Farm Bill H.R. 7567 PASSES the House 224–200, and the pesticide preemption “Luna 28” amendment gets STRUCK on the floor 280–142. The chemical lobby took a bipartisan ass‑kicking, and producer right‑to‑sue stays alive at the state level. E15 year‑round gets pulled out of the Farm Bill and bumped to a standalone vote on May 13. Corn and ethanol boys have to win it on its own merits now. Cash cattle blow the doors off: five‑area weekly average hits 254.58 on 24,289 head Thursday, with late clean‑up at 256 live and 405 dressed — a new record, up 6.20 over last week’s 248.38. Board took a breather, cash did the heavy lifting. June live cattle settles 252.75 Friday, down 2.50 over the two‑day stretch. May feeders hang around 372.50 and the CME Feeder Index prints 372.47. Lean hogs June get worked, off 2.47 across the fold. UAE officially walks out of OPEC and OPEC‑plus — first time a top‑3 exporter has left — and WTI still drops 4.89 in 48 hours as the Strait of Hormuz stays effectively closed and sea‑mine risk keeps a choke collar on exports. USDA confirms New World Screwworm in Nuevo León, Mexico, now just 62 miles from the Texas border — about 20 miles closer than the April 10 detection we’ve been tracking. APHIS shifts sterile fly dispersal into a 50‑mile polygon inside Texas along the Tamaulipas line. This is the closest the parasite’s been to U.S. cattle since eradication in 1966. SDRP deadline gets pushed: Thursday was supposed to be last call, but USDA extends Stage 1 and Stage 2 out to August 12, 2026 after paying 6.7 billion of the 16‑billion‑dollar pot and bumping Stage 2 to 70 percent. The money’s moving, but you still have to file. Sale barn tape: Superior’s 23,000‑head video sale runs with final tallies due early next week, Torrington sets 21 steer barn records across 5–8 weights, OKC West cranks out 6,500 head with 11 record prints, and light calves look like the new currency in Bassett, Joplin and beyond. Horse side: Billings moves 711 head, top horse at 30,000 with a dozen over 20k, Garfield hammers 350,000 at Premier, and EHV‑1 quarantines in Virginia and New Jersey mean you’d better check the board before you haul into Mid‑Atlantic barns. Drought monitor bleeds across the High Plains, Kansas State’s model pegs Kansas wheat down 31 percent to 240 million bushels at 39.4 bushels per acre, Texas and Oklahoma wheat ratings are ugly, and Sandhills fire damage keeps Nebraska pushing FEMA for a 30‑day extension. Rural business: 417 rural hospitals flagged as vulnerable, UnitedHealthcare follows through on exempting roughly 1,500 from prior auth by fall, livestock theft trends up with high prices and tight herds, and a federal court re‑opens the spigot on wind and solar permitting on federal land while BLM’s 2026 grazing fee lands at 1.69 per AUM. Packer watch: Cargill’s Milwaukee ground‑beef plant still marked for a May 31 shutdown, 221 jobs gone, while DOJ’s criminal probe into the Big Four grinds on and HedgersEdge has packer margins running roughly negative 231 a head with cash at 256 and cutout under 390. Somebody either pushes cutout or slows the chains. Plus: quick hits on the Trump‑Xi Beijing summit, the Fed handoff from Powell to Warsh, a White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter update, bird‑flu testing rules on dairy cows, listener mailbag, and “On This Day” to close it out. Move your ass — we’re burnin’ daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices