THE PROTEIN PULSE - Taco Meat Tuesday | November 10th, 2026

THE PROTEIN PULSE Taco Meat Tuesday | November 10th, 2026 Full Executive Briefing — Spoken Script

HOST: Welcome to The Protein Pulse Podcast, your daily market update on all things protein. This is Taco Meat Tuesday for November 10th, 2026, from The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Stop letting pre-report headlines drive your enterprise risk strategy. This morning, algorithm trading will spike grain futures on a fractional Wasdy yield tweak. Don't let your team panic into reactive hedging. A two-bushel yield adjustment doesn't alter your landed feed basis today, nor does temporary cash cattle weakness change the structural deficit in beef. Major packers are actively securing multi-year rancher partnerships to de-risk live supply because they know spot relief is an illusion. Meanwhile, expanding broiler tonnage won't protect your Q1 margins if your contracts lack spec-level pricing controls. Today's Wasdy sets an input benchmark, not a procurement strategy. Audit your formula escalators, challenge processor margin traps, and enforce spec discipline across every category. Stay disciplined.

HOST: The November World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates arrives at 11:00 a.m. Central today, after this edition's publication. Analysts expect USDA to lower its corn-yield estimate and raise its soybean-yield estimate from October. For protein producers, the release sets a new supply benchmark, not a delivered-feed price. Tyson Foods intends to form a long-term cattle-supply partnership with Allied Beef and restore the second shift at Amarillo, targeting full operation by summer 2027. The announcement comes after a sharp weekly retreat in cash cattle prices. JBS reported a return to a positive North American beef margin even as consolidated earnings weakened. September beef export value increased even as pork exports weakened. Broiler production is projected to grow, while individual chicken-part prices remain uneven. Two operational developments merit attention beyond the livestock tape. Grain-rail fuel surcharges climbed sharply in November, and immigration enforcement has exposed staffing vulnerabilities in cattle-processing regions. Those risks affect deliveries and capacity independently of futures prices.

SHAWN: Tyson announced plans for a long-term arrangement with Allied Beef, a rancher group, to support cattle procurement. The company is restoring select second-shift operations at its Amarillo, Texas, plant and targets a fully operating second shift by summer 2027. This is a planned capacity expansion, not additional full-shift output already in the market. Cattle suppliers gain a potential longer-term outlet. Competing buyers and processors will watch how contracted supply changes local procurement. JBS reported a zero point three percent EBITDA margin in its North American beef business for the third quarter, while consolidated adjusted EBITDA fell thirty-six percent year over year to one point one eight billion dollars. The company attributed the improvement in U.S. beef partly to reduced processing capacity and renewed cattle imports from Mexico. Pork and poultry faced separate oversupply pressures. For processors and major buyers, the results show why one company's recovering beef margin cannot stand in for profitability across proteins. The five-area live F-O-B average for steers fell to two fifteen forty-three for the week ended November 8th from two twenty-three seventy-three the preceding week. Dressed delivered steers declined to three thirty-eight thirty-nine from three fifty-two nineteen. Monday's limited negotiated trade did not establish a broad new cash benchmark. Choice grade boxed beef rose one ninety-five to three sixty-two seventy-four Monday, while Select grade rose seventeen cents to three fifty-three seventy-three. Cattle costs and boxed-beef values are not moving in lockstep, so processors and buyers should evaluate margins by actual transactions and cuts. Reporting on immigration enforcement and cattle-processing labor in southwest Kansas describes absenteeism, slower throughput and cattle backups. The documented disruption predates this week. It is a continuing operating risk, not a newly announced Monday shutdown. Buyers reliant on one plant should confirm shipment schedules and alternative suppliers' cut, trim and packaging specifications when labor shortages threaten throughput. National negotiated fresh nineties averaged three seventy-three Monday, versus two eighty-five for eighty-fives and eighty-six for fifties. The prior week's fresh nineties average was three seventy on a national F-O-B plant basis. Imported lean beef quotations use different origins and delivery terms. Domestic F-O-B prices and imported offers should not be compared as if they were delivered equivalents.

HOST: The Monday afternoon pork carcass cutout was seventy eighty-one, up sixteen cents, with the belly primal at sixty-six nineteen and ribs at one twenty-six fifty-seven. National negotiated hog carcass prices averaged forty-four seventy-two, down one forty-nine. Lower cash hog costs do not assure an across-the-board reduction in specific pork cuts. On the forward side, a recent modeled weaner breakeven was fourteen seventy-four a head versus a reported cash weaner average of eighteen eighty-four a head, indicating pressure on placements at those assumptions. Daily's Premium Meats completed a one hundred million dollar expansion at St. Joseph, Missouri, adding four automated production lines and increased slicing and packaging capabilities. A bacon-bits line is expected in early 2027. This is capacity for value-added pork products. It should not be counted as an immediate increase in hog-kill capacity. The 2026 broiler-production outlook is forty-nine point seven two billion pounds, up three point six percent year over year. For the week ended November 6th, fre