Burnin’ Daylight

Matt McKinley

A podcast explaining and celebrating the intricacies, wisdom and humor of cowboy/ cowpuncher/ buckaroo culture. Enjoy conversations with working cowboys, authors, musicians, business leaders and hilariously offensive news and political analysis from the viewpoint of your favorite feedlot cowboy, Matt McKinley. The podcast for the working cowboy!

  1. 1d ago

    Valentine Made History. Packers Low-Balled All Week. Screwworm at the Wire. | FFRRR Fri. May 29

    The week of May 25, 2026 delivered one for the record books — and not just one record. Valentine Livestock in Valentine, NE set the highest daily weighted average for 7-weight steers in U.S. history: $407.28/cwt on 2,582 head. Five of the top 10 all-time 7-wt steer sales nationally now belong to Valentine — all set on the same day. Meanwhile, packers bid $253 live all week while yards held at $260. Only 1,559 head traded through Thursday morning. The $7 standoff held. Chains ramp back to 530–540K next week — that's the pressure point. Slaughter for the Memorial Day week came in at 448,000 head — the smallest Memorial Day week cattle kill in modern history. YTD kill is running 9.2% below last year's pace. Heavier cattle (avg live weight 1,469 lbs, up 45 lbs year-over-year) are backstopping beef output, but YTD beef production is still 6.6% below the prior year. Boxed beef ribs ran +$18.50/cwt in a single week. Choice cutout closed at $391.47 — net up $1.20 on the week despite two down days Friday. Screwworm is 60 miles from the U.S. border. All southern ports of entry remain closed to livestock imports. No timeline on reopening. Mexican cattle are not coming. That feeder supply hole stays open heading into summer. Strait of Hormuz: U.S. and Iran agreed to a 60-day ceasefire extension. Shipping stays unrestricted — for now. WTI crude sold off on the news, erasing an earlier 3% gain. First crack in 14 straight weeks of fertilizer price increases showed up this week — potash and UAN32 eased. High Plains drought is expanding. Kansas Poor-to-Very Poor winter wheat: 55%. National Good/Excellent: 26%. Nevada and Great Basin fire outlook: above normal through summer. Fallon Livestock Special Feeder Sale — Tuesday, June 9, 2026. burnindaylight.substack.com · burnin-daylight.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    54 min
  2. 1d ago

    June Swoon Watch, Tigers in Trouble & Weekend Series Preview | BD Baseball 5-29-26

    It’s BD Baseball for Friday, May 29, 2026. Jake and I sort through a light Thursday slate and some heavy shit for a few teams. We start in Detroit: Skubal’s back on the IL, the offense is flat‑lined, and we’re asking out loud if the Tigers just suck this year and what a trade might even look like. From there we head to the South Side where the White Sox stay hot and Murakami keeps mashing, then up to Boston where the Braves roll through Fenway and Ronald Acuña Jr. hits a grand slam off the Monster because of course he does. We get into why teams are spamming breaking balls at the Cubs and how that turned their May into a disaster, plus another Paul Skenes start where he shoves and gets nothing from the offense or the bullpen. We also talk about the Astros coming on, the Rangers wobbling, and the AL West being wide open if anybody wants to grab it, while the Brewers and the rest of the NL Central look like a damn gauntlet. We run through injuries and roster moves — Twins shuffling pieces, Steven Kwan heading to the paternity list, more bad news for the Rockies’ pitching staff, and Andrew McCutchen getting released when everyone on earth just wants to see him finish up in Pittsburgh. Then we look ahead to the weekend: Padres at Nationals, Twins at Pirates, Cubs at Cardinals, Tigers at White Sox, Angels at Rays, Brewers at Astros, Giants at Rockies, Yankees at A’s, D‑backs at Mariners and Phillies at Dodgers. We wrap it up with the official BD June Swoon Watch List — Cubs, A’s, Rangers, Pirates and Padres — talk about who might actually get hot instead (Jays, Phillies, maybe even the Tigers if the baseball gods ever cut them a break), and then wander into NBA Western Conference Finals Game 7, Knicks Finals talk, the Toy Story/Avalanche Stanley Cup “conspiracy,” and a Little League “most improved” story from my team. Move your ass. We’re burnin’ daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    54 min
  3. 2d ago

    $47M Beef Settlement, 180-Day Feedyard Record & FTC Pulls the Subpoenas | Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report 5-28-26

    In today’s Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report for Thursday, May 28, 2026, I’m coming to you out of Yerington, Nevada with a full plate of cattle, policy, and b******t to sort through. We talk: June live cattle 10 under cash while the 5‑Area cash price holds 260.45 and packers slow the chain. USDA’s May Cattle on Feed report showing a record 1.99 million head on feed 180 days or more. Tyson’s new 47 million‑dollar civil settlement on beef price‑fixing for commercial buyers — with the DOJ criminal probe still hanging out there. Trump’s Argentina quota expansion and the 200‑day beef TRQ suspension that swing the foreign beef door wide open during a historically tight U.S. herd. The FTC’s fresh investigation into fertilizer pricing — on top of DOJ — while anhydrous, DAP, MAP, UAN, and urea all sit more than 150% above 2020. Base acre elections, CRP emergency grazing, Nebraska wheat damage, and what that means if you run cows or farm ground. Tigers hurting, Brewers rolling, A’s hanging around in the AL West, and an “On This Day” that runs from the Indian Removal Act to the Sierra Club and cloned horses. If this show is worth something to your operation, the best thing you can do is tell one neighbor who runs cows or farms ground and send them my way. Read the write‑up, get the transcript, and support the show over on Substack: 👉 https://burningdaylight.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
  4. 2d ago

    Tigers Finally Win, A’s Fall Apart, Brewers Roll, Cubs Panic | BD Baseball 5-28-26

    Jake’s back, the new studio actually works, and two-thirds of our homer teams lost again. We open with the Tigers finally snapping their skid against the Angels, at the cost of injuries to Casey Mize and Kenley Jansen, and then roll straight into the A’s pitching nightmare: Savale to the IL, Springs struggling, Severino bad, the carousel in full spin, and the bats cooling off in West Sacramento. From there we hit Rockies–Dodgers and Shohei throwing six no-hit innings while basically pitching against himself, the Blue Jays maybe waking up, the Guardians being quietly legit behind Gavin Williams, and the Nationals turning into an over machine with James Wood and CJ Abrams both on a tear. We dig into Seattle finally hitting a lefty against Jeffrey Springs, Logan Gilbert and the stacked Mariners rotation, the AL West being kind of trash, the Tigers’ much-needed 4–0 win, and how it feels to watch your team lose in every possible way. Then it’s Christopher Sánchez’s filthy scoreless streak for the Phillies, Padres pitching rumors as the Dodgers and Diamondbacks heat up, Ketel Marte going God mode, and why Paul Skenes with run support feels wrong but beautiful. Down the stretch we talk Brewers as a full-on pitching factory with Miserowski and Harrison, Cubs grinding through a ten-game skid and sliding into crisis mode, whether the Pirates hang around or just play spoiler, Murakami chasing records for the White Sox, the Royals being back to ‘Bobby Witt and nobody else,’ the Astros starting to wake up behind Yordan’s heater, and the Rockies getting the most Rockies run you’ll ever see off Shohei without a hit. We close with today’s light getaway slate, a couple of overs and moneylines we like, and a quick look ahead to a spicy weekend: Padres–Nats, Tigers–White Sox, Cubs–Cards, Brewers–Astros, D-backs–Mariners, Yankees–A’s, and Phillies–Dodgers. Move your ass, we’re burnin’ daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
  5. 4d ago

    War Premium, BLM Backpedal & $950M Oil Bets – Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report (5/26/26)

    In this episode of the Friggin’ Farm & Ranch Report I’m pulling a lot of threads together: cattle on feed, beef imports, BLM’s backpedal on public lands, $5.60 diesel, and some very suspicious trades in oil and prediction markets. Here’s what I walk through: – May 1 Cattle on Feed: 11.6M on feed (+2% y/y), placements +6%, marketings –10% – first y/y increase in 18 months. dtnpf +1 – Beef cows still around 27.6M head (–1% y/y), so the cow factory is still tiny even if feedlots look heavy. nass.usda +1 – Q1 2026 beef imports at 562k metric tons / ~$4.5B, up 18% from last year and 122% from five years ago, while the Trump team talks about suspending beef import TRQs. qz +1 – BLM rescinding the 2024 Public Lands Rule and revoking American Prairie’s bison permits on seven Montana allotments, putting cattle back on those BLM pastures. wlj +1 – The board: June live around $248, August feeders about $349, July corn $4.58, KC wheat $6.76 – a don’t‑screw‑it‑up board, not a get‑rich one. FF-RR-transcript-5-26-26.txt – Inputs: EIA diesel at $5.596, AAA diesel at $5.584, DTN fert with DAP at $914, urea $865, anhydrous $1,118, and hay economics that pencil a multibillion‑dollar hole for alfalfa growers. gasprices.aaa +3 – War reel: Iran, Hormuz, Brent screaming higher on war headlines, then a ceasefire dropping prices – plus a $950M crude short placed right before that ceasefire and a Green Beret indicted for using classified intel to trade Polymarket. debevoise +2 – How all of that – war, imports, BLM, and Wall Street side bets – ends up in your fuel bill, fertilizer bill, and cattle checks. If you want the charts and receipts I’m talking about, the full write‑up for this episode is on Substack (free to read and listen): 👉 https://burningdaylight.substack.com That’s also where you get early access to the Burnin’ Daylight Report (my markets dashboard) and Man About a Horse. Share it with a neighbor, send me your local sale‑barn reports and drought pictures, and remember: move your ass – we’re burnin’ daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    56 min
4.8
out of 5
70 Ratings

About

A podcast explaining and celebrating the intricacies, wisdom and humor of cowboy/ cowpuncher/ buckaroo culture. Enjoy conversations with working cowboys, authors, musicians, business leaders and hilariously offensive news and political analysis from the viewpoint of your favorite feedlot cowboy, Matt McKinley. The podcast for the working cowboy!

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