Cattle Market Guys - Tuesday Check In 6-16-2026

JBS USA just shuttered two major beef processing facilities — and the ripple effects are already hitting cattle futures and producer margins hard. When a packing plant goes dark, the hurt doesn't stop at the front gate. It rolls all the way back to the pasture.

In this Tuesday Market Update, Brock and Jim break down a volatile week in cattle markets, starting with a meaningful price slide since mid-May. Feeder steers in the 500–549 lb range have dropped roughly $14 per hundredweight from their mid-May peaks, while the heavier 600–649 lb class has fallen nearly $19 — a significant pullback in a short window. The guys walk through near-term price projections across both weight classes and explain what the unusually wide basis between cash and futures is signaling about current market structure.

From there, Brock and Jim dig into the JBS plant closures in Souderton, Pennsylvania and Memphis, Tennessee — what they mean for regional producers, how processing concentration amplifies the damage, and why Jim's experience from a similar 1997 closure is the right frame for thinking about it today. They also cover USDA's newly announced $60 million Small Processors Action Plan and what it realistically can — and can't — accomplish. The episode closes with a look at the week's futures action, including three consecutive sessions of gains that were erased by a single headline, and what the June WASDE report means for producers making near-term marketing decisions.