THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME Taco Meat Tuesday | November 3rd, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Taco Meat Tuesday, November 3rd. 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: Choice grade cutout at three sixty-five oh four, up thirty-eight cents. Pork cutout at seventy-two twenty-eight, up two eighteen. Fresh eighty-fives at two eighty-two, down six ninety-one. Imported nineties at three nineteen C-I-F. Domestic nineties at three seventy-one F-O-B. West Texas Crude at ninety-six forty-six. Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel at four forty-two.

SHAWN: Confirm chilled-export vessel access before committing freight. Beef buyers should compare approved blend specifications, yields and delivered costs rather than treating theoretical ingredient comparisons as executable savings. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.