THE PROTEIN PULSE — DRIVE TIME | Taco Meat Tuesday | September 15, 2026

Taco Meat Tuesday | September 15, 2026

HOST: Protein Pulse Drive Time. Taco Meat Tuesday, September fifteenth. From The Sparks Group.

SHAWN: Consumers aren’t walking away from protein. They’re trading around it. People don’t quit protein. They trade proteins.

HOST: The cutout didn’t do much Monday. The grind did.

SHAWN: Fresh nineties around four thirty-five. Fifties below eighty-nine cents. Both sides of the blend got cheaper. Packers are making about eighty to one hundred ten a head — fourth profitable week. Cattle slaughter is still down seven point six percent year-to-date. The supply didn’t improve. The economics did. Wholesale relief is not automatically cheaper hamburger at retail.

HOST: Pork’s number is demand. August wholesale demand down seventeen point three percent.

SHAWN: That weakness is estimated at about fifteen dollars a head. You can kill fewer hogs. That doesn’t fix demand. Bellies dropped another ten cents to a dollar oh six. Chicken production is up. Breasts more than twenty-six percent cheaper than last year. Minnesota added HPAI detections. Watch the birds. Don’t call it a supply problem today.

HOST: Quota headline is three hundred thousand tons. USDA only raised the import forecast one hundred thirty million pounds. Fed decision Wednesday. Crude is one oh one.

SHAWN: Watch the offers, not the quota. Cheaper protein does less when it costs more to finance and move. Stay disciplined.

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

SHAWN: Stay disciplined.