THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME Monday Market Open | October 19th, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Monday Market Open, October 19th. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: It's always easier to paddle with the current than fight your way upstream. But take a look at these markets. We're not dealing with a lazy Sunday float down the river. We're in the middle of some raging rapids, and half the time you can't tell which direction the damn water is running. Everybody's got an opinion about where we're headed. The river doesn't care how smart you think you are, and being right on Monday doesn't mean a damn thing if you're broke by Friday. We can't control the current. But we sure as hell can control the decisions we make while we're in it. Make yours count this week.

HOST: Cash cattle entered the weekend with Southern bids at two twenty-eight. Choice boxed beef closed at three seventy-two, down one sixty-seven. Select at three fifty-three. Fresh nineties at three ninety-seven F-O-B plant. South American frozen nineties near three oh five at the port. Pork cutout recovered three cents to eighty-one. Chicken breast at one seventeen. Thigh at one seventy-three.

SHAWN: Two new screwworm cases in New Mexico put Columbus in question. No official reopening date. Don't count those cattle until it's confirmed. Ice Futures is planning competing livestock contracts for December 7th. The real test is liquidity, not the press release. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.