Cattle slaughterings in Australia jumped 10% for the month of August close to 680,000 head, as drought conditions forced farmers to cull numbers. This brings cattle slaughterings for the first eight months of 2017 to 4.8m head, which is still 3% behind the same period last year.

Dairy export volumes from the EU have held up strongly in 2017, despite rising market prices. For the first eight months of 2017, dairy commodity exports are 7% ahead of last year at 3.5m tonnes. This has been driven by a sharp increase in the export volume of SMP (+43%) and infant formula (+13%).

The USDA has forecast that US farmers will plant more than 90m acres in soya beans next year. Despite this increased acreage, soya bean production is expected to be hit by lower yield per acre. The USDA is forecasting overall soya bean production at 121m tonnes next season.

Argentine cattle slaughterings for the first nine months of 2017 stood at 9.3m head, which is 7% ahead of last year. At this rate, it is forecast that total slaughterings in 2017 will reach 12.4m head. This will see beef production in Argentina break 2m tonnes for the year.