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Tractor spraying soybeans

Profit profiles is a weekly market report for common Alabama agricultural commodities. It contains futures prices for nearby and harvest months, Alabama steer and heifer prices, hay prices and selected feed and fertilizer inputs prices. Futures prices reflect commodity closing prices as of Friday afternoon. Other prices are current as they are published.

Download the current profit profiles of commodities.


Futures Prices

Closing prices for corn, soybeans, soybean meal, cotton, live cattle, and feeder cattle are posted. The next columned section has the min/max for the week, and the last columned section reflects the min/max since coming on board. (Since coming on board is when the closing prices are available from the source of commodity prices.) The min/max gives a relative indication of the current price to the periods indicated.

Alabama Weekly Steer and Heifer Prices

Weekly average prices for feeder steers medium and large 1 and 2s, as well as feeder heifers medium and large 1 and 2s, are listed on this page. Calculated numbers include average dollars per head, dollar difference, and weight difference between average weights between a given weight interval. The last column calculates value of gain. This value of gain is the value of each additional pound of weight gain. If the cost of gain is less than the value of gain, retaining calves to a heavier weight should be considered if resources are available. Remember, these numbers are derived from averages for the past week and from data available.

[Value of gain = (Final weight X Price) – (initial weight X Price)/(Final weight – initial weight)]

Total estimated receipts (number of head) for the current week, previous week, year to date, and year ago to date are provided.

Select Production Cost Items

This page provides selected production cost/prices paid by farmers listed as well as estimated cost of production and statewide basis information. Selected feedstuffs are listed first and are broken down by north, central, and south Alabama. Statewide prices follow. The statewide items also contain for other previous week prices. Estimated cost of production, variable and fixed, are based on the weighted average costs of production of the listed commodities. Note. The cost of production does not reflect a charge for land or management.

Hay Prices

The last page contains hay prices from the Southeast Weekly Hay report. Prices are listed are on a per ton basis. Amounts form last week and last year are included as well as year to date values.

More Information

For more information, or to be added to the profit profiles email list, contact Max Runge at rungemw@auburn.edu.