Breaking News

Business

Ward County Real Estate Transactions

January 2024 — 204 2nd St. NE, Surrey, residential, Dylan Garrett and Brittany Russell from Andrew and Jolene Petras, $247,000. — 201 Main St., Carpio, residential, and 0.09 acres unaddressed, Damon Burner from Gary Springer, $35,000 — 30501 303rd Ave. SW, Ryder, agricultural/residential, and unaddressed 146.57 acres, 160 acres, 157.48 acres and 120 acres, Ryder, agricultural, Wesley Sherven from RVL Real Estate, $1.4 million. — 401 3rd Ave. NE, Berthold, residential, Jared and Abby Hamilton from Emily and Eric Knutson, $265,000. — 8225 91st St. SE, Minot, ...

FUTURESFILE

Cattle numbers continue decline USDA cattle inventory numbers were released mid-week, and the numbers were in line with estimates but friendly in the sense that they confirmed what was thought to be known but had yet to be revealed in the placement numbers of the monthly Cattle on Feed reports. The cattle herd has shrunk and continues to shrink. All cattle and calves totaled 87.2 million head at the start of 2024, down 2% from a year earlier. The number of beef cows was also down 2% from last year at 28.2 million head. This is the fifth consecutive year that the number of beef cows ...

City of Minot January building permits

– Dean Keller, RAK Homes, 3312 and 3314 23rd Ave. NW, twin homes with garages, decks, both $182,000. – William and Karen Fleming, William Patrick Fleming, 609 19th St. SE, move bathroom wall between kitchen and living room, $14,000. – Reinaldo Guitian III, 1905 Highland Dr., remodel, remove and replace part of basement bearing wall, $500. – Justin and Courtney Traeger, Groundworks Minnesota, 709 35th Ave. NE, push piers and gutter, $6,000. – Lilly Olson, Groundwork Minnesota, 104 10th Ave. NW, gutter and sump replacement, $8,000. – Jordan and Tanya Howett, TT&T ...

Futures File: Cattle market brings the heat

June Live Cattle futures were up $4.075 for the week, settling at $178.45/cwt. Which is a noteworthy level. The 200-day moving average is $179/cwt, the 100-day moving average is $178.5/cwt and the 50% retracement level is $178.4/cwt. The 50% retracement coming from the contract highs put in at $194/cwt on Sept. 15 to the lows of $162.775/cwt on Dec. 6. All three of these levels were hit today – on a Friday – with a positive close. The last three weeks of weather have been extreme for large portions of cattle-feeding country. Multiple rounds of cold, blowing snow with sprinkles ...

Futures File: China loses pop in population

A popular story making the rounds this past week was the population of China decreasing for the second year in a row. Births fell to a record low in 2023 while deaths reached a record high, and the overall population fell by just over 2 million to 1.41 billion. (The population decrease in 2022 amounted to roughly 300,000 according to Bloomberg.) A delayed recording of COVID fatalities could explain the deaths but the birth rate has been steadily declining since 2016, the same year they ended the one child policy, allowing families to have two children. Then in July of 2021, China ...

Futures FIle: USDA beats dead horse

The January WASDE and Quarterly Stocks Report was released last week, and it put what may be the final nail in the coffin for 2023-24 grain bulls. Production estimates of both corn and soybeans for the 2023 crop year were raised between .5% and 1% in total, which doesn’t sound like much, but it allows for the projected 2023/24 ending stocks of corn to remain comfortably above 2 billion bushels at 2.162 billion – a plentiful supply that will take time for demand to chew through. Demand has been good…ish with better export sales to Mexico than last year, and consumption from an ...