AG Squawk AM 8/14/2026 with Jed Sidwell | TYSON PLANT CLOSURE

We wake up to a major shock for the beef business as Tyson closes its Joslin, Illinois cattle plant, then we connect the dots to what that means for cattle movement, capacity, and market volatility. We also run through livestock and grain prices, extreme U.S. weather, and the key economic reports that can move trading sentiment today.

• breaking news on the Tyson Joclin, Illinois cattle plant closure
• recap of live cattle, feeder cattle, and lean hogs closes
• overnight grain market quotes for corn, soybeans, and Chicago wheat
• flash flooding across the Corn Belt and evacuations in Indiana
• record Southern Plains heat and what it can mean for ag
• how plant closures change slaughter capacity and cattle routing
• why Tyson cites inefficiency after a beef CEO change
• what to watch at the market open plus retail sales and Michigan sentiment

Make sure and call your broker. Call to us if you need any sort of advice or want to know what we're thinking. Our number is right there on the screen, or go ahead and go to agbull.com.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Good morning and welcome to Ag Squawk AM. Jed Sidwell here, live from Joliet, Illinois. Today we have breaking news coming out of Joclin, Illinois. The Tyson cattle plant there

Welcome And Breaking Tyson Closure

SPEAKER_00 0:23

has officially closed its doors. We'll get to that and more here in a bit. Looking at the livestock market and where it closed yesterday, already a red day down yesterday at three. Live cattle were down three dollars and a quarter at 220,

Livestock Markets Close Recap

SPEAKER_00 0:51

about even there. Feeder cattle closed at $337.20, down $2.15. Lean hogs were down across the board. They were down $1.43 at $82.13. Quoting the grain markets here live with our software from plus $100. We saw a bit of a rally overnight, which is always great to see when we have upward

Overnight Grain Quotes And Rally

SPEAKER_00 1:14

movement. We saw a bit of a correction from what happened after that report yesterday, but overnight is they seem to have recovered some. As I'm looking at my quotes here from T4 from Plus 500, Sep corn is at 453, Sep beans are 1175, and Chicago wheat is at 665. On to our weather discussion for today. There's quite a lot to talk about, and our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone across the country because it seems like if you're not flooding, then you're burning

Flooding Corn Belt And Plains Heat

SPEAKER_00 1:47

up. And it's really hard to see. The corn belt is getting absolutely pummeled with rain. Widespread, widespread flash flooding across the corn belt. More than two dozen counties from southeastern Iowa across northern Illinois and northern Indiana were under flash flood warnings this morning. That comes after large parts of Indiana's had evacuations with all of the flooding that was going on there. Brutal record Southern Plains heat hit yesterday. Medicine Lodge, Kansas, hit 113, knocking on their record there. Several other Kansas locations hitting over 110 degrees. There is unfortunately no break relief in sight for those folks out there. So hopefully they can maybe catch a lucky rain here to help cool things off just a little bit. On to the big headline for today.

What Tyson Closure Means Locally

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That is absolutely crazy. And it's a story we're all too familiar with. If we remember not too long ago, the JBS plant in Lexington, Nebraska closed. And man, I'm really saying my thoughts and prayers for the people that live in the town of Joclin, because if you've been through Lexington, Nebraska recently, man, a lot has changed there with its main industry just gone. A lot of people have seen a change in life there. These cattle were gonna have to bounce around. It's they're either gonna have to go all the way to Nebraska or Kansas or up to Green Bay, probably to get slaughtered. I mean, there's just not enough local plants to hold that 3,000 capacity that they have. I'd like to pop on this graphic here for a sec. I was just doing some quick research and it really caught my eye. Those lines going across the top one is Lexington, Nebraska. The one below that is Jocelyn, Pasco, Washington has kind of been on the fence, and Amarillo, Texas down there, the yellow the yellow one is just on a single shift. That is a huge number of head between all of those plants, just between Lexington and Jocelyn. That was an 8100 capacity plant. Obviously, they haven't been running at capacity since we kind of had a cattle shortage, but it is really concerning for the cattle industry whenever we see a big packer like that decide to close its doors. Why did it happen, you might ask? Well, there was a change in the CEO at Tyson on the beef side, and they went and looked at the inefficiency of the Jocelyn plant and decided it wasn't worth it and immediately closed doors. That's

Why The Plant Shut Down

SPEAKER_00 4:26

the reason some people are fit are kind of fed up with this, is because of how quickly and how abruptly this closure happened. Make sure and watch the markets today, folks. It's going to be a wild one, I'm sure, right after the open. We gotta love when information like this comes out after the close because we know the next day is gonna

How To Trade Today’s Volatility

SPEAKER_00 4:46

be pretty crazy. So make sure and call your broker. Call to us if you need any sort of advice or want to know what we're thinking. Our number is right there on the screen, or go ahead and go to agbull.com. We're gonna have information throughout the day there. Mr. Jim Wiesmeyer's stuff is still free as of right now. So if you need info, go on over to AgBull.com. In times like these, it pays to be educated. On the economic calendar for today, other than the market open, which should be on everyone's calendar, uh, that is at 8.30 a.m. Central. But as I'm recording a little bit after this, retail sales comes out at 7.30

Economic Calendar And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 5:24

a.m., the University of Michigan sentiment comes out at 9. That's all I have for you today, folks. Thank you for watching and thank you for listening. I'm Jed Sidwell with Ag Bull Media. Make sure and tune in this afternoon. Davis is going to talk to Mr. Jim Weismeyer, and I'm sure they're going to have a lot to talk about to really break down this situation. It is really going to send some shockwaves here to the cattle industry, and I'm sure some of it will escape into the other ags and hog side as well. So pay attention to those. I'm Jed Sidwell with Ag Bull Media. We're a financial channel that loves agriculture. Have a great day.