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

    $30 Million to Take Out Massie. 425 Beef Plants Into China. Make It Make Sense. — 5/20/26

    The cattle trade story of the year dropped this week and almost nobody connected the dots. China's GACC renewed 5-year licenses for 425 U.S. beef packing establishments — straight out of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing. USMEF CEO Dan Halstrom called it "what we've been waiting for almost a year." Meanwhile, the same Washington that spent $30 million to primary Thomas Massie — the only guy in Congress who consistently pushed back on farm policy sellouts — is now celebrating a China beef deal that China can turn off whenever it wants. We'll unpack both. Today's show covers: China GACC: 425 U.S. plant licenses renewed + 77 new registrations. What it means, what it doesn't, and why Argentina's peso devaluation changes the math Big 4 packer antitrust update — DOJ/FTC review context Cash cattle confirmed today: $263.90/cwt live, $410.00/cwt dressed — 3,074 head thin test on a soft board Corn reverses 11.5¢ · Boxed beef Choice $395.75 · HRW wheat at 17% good-to-excellent — worst since 2012 Diesel $5.60/gal (EIA wk ending 5/19) · Brent $110 · DAP $682/ton · Urea $549/ton War Reel: Ukraine hits Russian oil refineries 1,600 km inside Russia — Yaroslavl, Tuapse, Samara — and the direct line to your fuel and fertilizer bill Farm Bill: House passed HR 7567 April 30 (224-200), Senate markup imminent — Boozman targeting late May Brucellosis zone comment window OPEN NOW for MT/WY/ID Yellowstone interface producers On This Day: Homestead Act signed (1862) · Levi's born in a Reno tailor shop (1873) · Hamburger Hill — 72 KIA, abandoned 3 weeks later (1969) Burnin' Daylight is the farm and ranch market report for working producers — no hedge-fund voice, no filler, every number sourced before it goes on air. 🟡 Subscribe on Substack (ad-free + full show notes + dashboard):https://burningdaylight.substack.com Find us everywhere podcasts live. New episodes every weekday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 7m
  2. 1D AGO

    $30 Million to Take Out Massie. 425 Beef Plants Into China. Make It Make Sense. — 5/20/26

    The cattle trade story of the year dropped this week and almost nobody connected the dots. China's GACC renewed 5-year licenses for 425 U.S. beef packing establishments — straight out of the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing. USMEF CEO Dan Halstrom called it "what we've been waiting for almost a year." Meanwhile, the same Washington that spent $30 million to primary Thomas Massie — the only guy in Congress who consistently pushed back on farm policy sellouts — is now celebrating a China beef deal that China can turn off whenever it wants. We'll unpack both. Today's show covers: China GACC: 425 U.S. plant licenses renewed + 77 new registrations. What it means, what it doesn't, and why Argentina's peso devaluation changes the math Big 4 packer antitrust update — DOJ/FTC review context Cash cattle confirmed today: $263.90/cwt live, $410.00/cwt dressed — 3,074 head thin test on a soft board Corn reverses 11.5¢ · Boxed beef Choice $395.75 · HRW wheat at 17% good-to-excellent — worst since 2012 Diesel $5.60/gal (EIA wk ending 5/19) · Brent $110 · DAP $682/ton · Urea $549/ton War Reel: Ukraine hits Russian oil refineries 1,600 km inside Russia — Yaroslavl, Tuapse, Samara — and the direct line to your fuel and fertilizer bill Farm Bill: House passed HR 7567 April 30 (224-200), Senate markup imminent — Boozman targeting late May Brucellosis zone comment window OPEN NOW for MT/WY/ID Yellowstone interface producers On This Day: Homestead Act signed (1862) · Levi's born in a Reno tailor shop (1873) · Hamburger Hill — 72 KIA, abandoned 3 weeks later (1969) Burnin' Daylight is the farm and ranch market report for working producers — no hedge-fund voice, no filler, every number sourced before it goes on air. 🟡 Subscribe on Substack (ad-free + full show notes + dashboard):https://burningdaylight.substack.com Find us everywhere podcasts live. New episodes every weekday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 7m
  3. 3D AGO

    Iran Rewrites Your Diesel Bill — $104 Crude, $262 Cash Cattle, Corn Rips 5%

    The morning crew was too polite to spell it out, so Matt did it after the close. Tuesday, May 19, 2026 — WTI settled $104.23 (+3%), Brent ~$111 (+~5%), and the Trump administration publicly admitted it called off an Iran bombing campaign yesterday. CENTCOM's Adm. Brad Cooper says he's ready to "execute a broad range of contingencies." Stocks got smoked, metals cratered, cattle bled on the board — and cash cattle didn't blink at $262.72 live / $411.56 dressed. This is not a watch-and-wait day. The whole macro picture is repricing around an Iran war about to escalate again, and your diesel bill, your fertilizer bill, and your feeder calf math just got rewritten between Friday's close and right now. In this episode: • Markets close — LE 247.18 (-1.94%), GF 363.85 (-1.01%), HE 102.10 (+12.88%), Corn 475.25 (+5.26%), Beans 1,210.25 (+3%), Meal -3%, Gold -4%, Silver -12.89%, Russell -4.09% • Lead story: Iran, $104 crude, and what it means for diesel ($5.65 retail), urea, and DAP • Cattle complex: cash holds, board sells — sale barn pulse from Clovis NM, Producers UT Salina, OKC West (with the on-the-fly correction), Producers TX, Billings MT, Torrington WY • Cattle on Feed setup heading into Friday's NASS report • Grains: corn ripping, meal selling — feedyard ration math you should run tonight • Drought: D3/D4 at 16.3% of monitored regions; Southeast at 81% D2+ • Disease wall: potato wart in PEI + Dectomax-CA1 screwworm EUA • Policy: S.785 American Beef Labeling Act cloture filed (MCOOL fight inside 30 days), S.1102 WOTUS markup, EV/hybrid registration fees, and a Thomas Massie eulogy • On This Day: T.E. Lawrence's motorcycle wreck (May 19, 1935), Mt. St. Helens (May 18–19, 1980), and the capture of Cynthia Ann Parker / birth of the Quanah Parker story (May 19, 1836) • Sports: JT Ginn's 8 no-hit innings undone in the 9th, Rashee Rice 30 days, Caitlin Clark grand marshal of the Indy 500, Avs–Knights WCF, and the Toy Story 5 conspiracy • Close: what Matt would do this week — top off diesel, book fall fertilizer, sell into cash strength, pay down operating notes, don't be the guy holding the bag at 6 PM Eastern when the next Iran headline drops Shout-out to the firefighters, farmers, and ranchers working the fires in SE Colorado, the OK/TX Panhandles, and SW Kansas. Tied — keep that disc moving. Cash is king. The packer is the only honest buyer. Tehran is writing your fuel bill this week. Friday's Cattle on Feed report lands at 2 PM Central — be ready. Move your ass — we're burnin' daylight. Full write-up, sources, dashboard, A Man About A Horse, and ad-free episodes: burningdaylight.substack.com Follow on Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, Rumble, and wherever you get podcasts — search Burning Daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    52 min
  4. 6D AGO

    Friggin' Farm & Ranch Report — Weekly Wrap 5/16/26 | Beijing Blinked, Plains Are Burning & Cash Cattle Hold $260

    Weekly wrap for the week ending May 16, 2026. It's been a week, daylight burners. Trump flew to Beijing, shook Xi's hand, declared fantastic deals, and flew home. The soy market said show me the purchase order — beans closed the week down 31 cents from Monday's peak. The one concrete thing that came out of that summit? China quietly renewed import licenses for 400+ US beef plants on Thursday. Five-year validity. The door to the world's biggest beef market just reopened. Cash cattle hit $260–$265 live and held all week — record territory. The WASDE cut US beef production 243 million pounds and raised the steer price forecast $8–$10 across the back half. The futures didn't believe it on Monday. By Friday, the board was following cash higher. The beef tariff executive order got pulled after ranch country raised hell. The Choice/Select spread is sitting at $0.10 — near inversion. Grilling season demand is very real. Wheat was the print of the week. KC hard red ripped $0.81 on the WASDE before giving back Friday. New crop all-wheat production at 1.561 billion bushels — below the lowest analyst estimate. If you stored winter wheat, your bin got more valuable this week. The Southern Plains and Southwest lit up Thursday and Friday. Hunggate Fire in Randall County TX — 14,000 acres, mandatory evacs, 5 simultaneous ignitions. Line Fire crossing from Quay County NM into the Texas Panhandle. Cimarron County Oklahoma getting hit again — same corridor as the February Ranger Road Fire. The NIFC season is running at 194% of the 10-year average. Nebraska already lost a million acres of summer grass. The Great Basin summer outlook is above normal for fire potential. Plan now, not in July. Also on the show: pseudorabies confirmed in Iowa and Texas commercial swine — first time since eradication in 2004. Fertilizer Institute CEO told the Senate Ag Committee that 34% of global urea runs through the Strait of Hormuz. Urea is up 47% since February and the Hormuz premium is not peeling off. Purdue Ag Economy Barometer hit an October 2024 low — two-thirds of producers expect net farm income to fall in 2026. And North Dakota pastureland broke $1,000 per acre in every region of the state. This is the show. Move your ass — we're burnin' daylight. Full show prep, transcripts, and the Burnin' Daylight dashboard: burningdaylight.substack.com A Man About a Horse equine intelligence app: burningdaylight.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    47 min
  5. MAY 15

    A's Gut-Punch, Tigers Swept, Rockies Rolled, Cubs–White Sox on the South Side | BD Baseball 5-15-26

    Happy Friday, daylight burners! Matt and Eric ride solo today (Jake's back Sunday) to recap a rough Thursday on the homer front and set up a loaded Rivalry Weekend. The A's drop a 5-4 heartbreaker to the Cardinals — Kurtz extends his on-base streak to 37 games with a leadoff bomb (two shy of Giambi's '98 A's record), but the bullpen coughs up the lead. The Rockies get rolled 7-2 in Pittsburgh as Ryan O'Hearn goes 3-for-4 with a two-run shot and Chase Dollander exits early with right forearm soreness. The Tigers get swept by the Mets 9-4, A.J. Ewing's first big league homer caps the Mets' five-homer barrage, and Hinch gets tossed (on a hot mic) over a blown replay at third. Around the league: Chase Burns deals 6 IP, 2 H for the Reds in a 15-1 dismantling of the Nationals (JJ Bleday — back-to-back jacks, 6 RBI), Zebby Matthews tosses 7 shutout in his spot start for the Twins, Schwarber breaks up a pitchers' duel with an 8th-inning bomb at Fenway, Brewers handle the Padres 7-1, Mariners take down Houston 8-3 (Cal Raleigh to the IL with a right oblique), Cubs avoid the sweep 2-1 in Atlanta behind Ben Brown's 4 IP, 1 H, 7 K, White Sox keep rolling over the Royals, and the Dodgers retake the NL West lead with a 5-2 win over the Giants. Full injury rundown: Cal Raleigh, Dollander, Garrett Crochet (20 pitches off the mound!), Max Fried imaging, Cole Ragans to the IL with pitcher's elbow, Kerry Carpenter, Verlander sim game, Buxton hip flexor, Murphy IL/Sean Murphy out, Hyeseong Kim back, Lindor still not close, Francisco Alvarez 6-8 weeks (meniscus), Yelich back, Nootbaar nearing rehab, Boyd out 6 weeks, Paddock signed by Reds, Mookie Betts back, and more. Weekend preview: Forget the Subway Series — the marquee matchup is the Crosstown Classic on the South Side (Cabrera vs. Burke). Plus Phillies-Pirates (Nola vs. Ashcraft), Blue Jays-Tigers (Yesavage debut watch), Reds-Guardians, Rangers-Astros, Royals-Cardinals, D-backs-Rockies (hammer the over), Padres-Mariners, and Giants at the A's in West Sac. Betting picks inside. Now move your ass — we're Burning Daylight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    36 min

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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