THE PROTEIN PULSE - Taco Meat Tuesday | November 3rd, 2026

THE PROTEIN PULSE Taco Meat Tuesday | November 3rd, 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 3rd, 2026, from The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Day 1 at MICA is in the books after a great Sonoran sunset. But while we caught up over drinks in Scottsdale, the macro environment isn't pausing for golf. Today's Protein Pulse zeroes in on what's spinning outside the resort gates this morning. Logistics and policy. West Coast port labor talks extend through November 4th, threatening cold chain exports, while EU supermarket cyberattacks reveal cold-storage risks. Meanwhile, EPA closed its twenty-year emissions dispute. Beef and pork. Boxed beef climbed alongside tighter imported trim volumes. Mexican feeder cattle resumed crossing at Columbus, and pork cutouts rose to seventy-two twenty-eight while negotiated hogs dropped over ten dollars. Global trade. EU broiler rules, Brazilian cattle pricing, and South American crop progress keep moving fundamentals. I'm on the floor all day. Let's grab coffee, compare notes, and talk real market reality. I still have Protein Pulse swag. You just have to ask for it.

HOST: West Coast exporters face a possible labor interruption. Negotiations involving approximately two hundred fifty security workers at Los Angeles and Long Beach have been extended through five p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, November 4th, according to the port employers' announcement. Vessel calls serving Oakland could also be affected. No shutdown has been confirmed. Two policy developments affect livestock and processing. EPA ended its two-decade livestock air-emissions estimating process. Separately, eight more processors voluntarily adopted USDA's Product of USA label, taking participation above thirty companies. Chinese buying and U.S. meat-export access remain under pressure. China's purchases of U.S. agricultural goods excluding soybeans totaled seven point two zero billion dollars through September, while beef-plant restrictions and weak meat demand continued to limit opportunities for exporters. Domestic prices diverged. Fresh eighty-fives fell six ninety-one cents a pound Friday to Monday, while pork cutouts rose despite lower hog futures. September soybean-meal inventories fell thirty-five point two percent from August as December meal futures declined.

SHAWN: National fresh eighty-fives boneless beef averaged two eighty-two Monday, down six ninety-one cents a pound from October 30th. Fresh nineties were three seventy-one, down only twenty-four cents a hundred from Friday, while fresh fifties trim gained one oh three cents a pound to eighty-four. Separately, industry reporting showed ninety percent lean cow beef falling from three ninety on October 29th to three seventy-one on October 30th. The observations are from different reported series. Choice grade boxed beef rose thirty-eight cents Monday to three sixty-five oh four and Select grade gained two ninety-six to three fifty-four ninety-four, producing a ten ten spread. Weekly boxed-beef export sales reached seven hundred eighty-one loads, up eighty-six from the preceding week and thirteen percent year over year. U.S. beef-trimmings imports totaled seventeen thousand eight hundred twenty-seven metric tons for the week ended October 24th, down eight point three percent. Brazil shipped five thousand seven hundred eighty-six metric tons, down nineteen point two percent. Australia increased fourteen point three percent to six thousand four hundred twenty-three metric tons. Platts assessed imported frozen nineties at three nineteen C-I-F U.S. East Coast October 30th. Condition and delivery terms differ from domestic fresh prices. No reportable negotiated fed-cattle cash trade developed Monday. The latest five-area weekly live F-O-B steer average was two twenty-three seventy-three, versus two twenty-seven oh eight the preceding week. Monday cattle slaughter reached one hundred four thousand head, down two thousand. Mexican feeder-cattle entries totaled fourteen thousand three hundred fifty head for the week ended October 30th, including two thousand one hundred fifty via reopened Columbus, New Mexico. Much of the traffic was precontracted. USDA announced a twenty-four point six zero million dollar loan guarantee for a proposed Dimmitt beef-processing plant projected at four hundred head per day. Opening remains prospective.

HOST: Monday's pork carcass cutout gained two eighteen to seventy-two twenty-eight after Friday's seventy ten reading. All six primals increased, including hams up three seventy-three to sixty-four forty-three, loins up three oh six to seventy-five sixty-five and bellies up one twenty-seven to seventy-four twelve. December lean hogs settled at fifty-eight eighteen a pound, down seventy cents, underscoring the distinction between a physical wholesale price and a futures contract. The national negotiated hog carcass base fell ten twenty-eight to fifty oh one on three thousand six hundred fifty-five head of reported purchases. That price applies to the negotiated category, not all hogs. Monday slaughter totaled four hundred ninety-two thousand head, up eight thousand from the previous Monday. Fresh forty-two CL and seventy-two CL pork trim combo averages were forty-four and forty-eight. Other product conditions trade separately. Cash weaners averaged twenty-one fifteen a head, down one twenty for the reporting week. A model puts all-in breakeven at eighteen forty-eight a head, implying a two sixty-seven a head projected shortfall on April 2027 marketing assumptions, not a realized loss. A federal judge allowed consumer-deception allegations against McDonald's to continue. McDonald's disputes the claims. The ruling establishes no wrongdoing. The animal welfare minister