Cash cattle just blew the doors off. Northern trade hit $256/cwt, smashing last week’s $248.38 record by $7.62 in one shot, while Texas printed $250 and the June board tried to hang onto its breakout by 30 cents at $253.45. We talk why the cash bid is this hot — 75‑year low cow herd, shrinking plant capacity, and over a million burned acres in the Sandhills — and what has to break on the demand side before this market finally cools off.

Then we go straight into boxed beef, packer margins, and some cleanup. The script overpromised on the inversion flip, the live hedge got it closer, and yesterday’s packer margin number was wrong — we fix it and lay out what it really looks like when packers are deep in the red while cash cattle keep ripping.

Markets Flash covers cattle, hogs, grains, energy, metals, and rates: KC HRW wheat up $1.08 on drought and fire, Chicago wheat up 30 cents, beans nudging higher on Trump–Xi summit hopes, WTI crude screaming to $107.68 and Brent to $117.30, AAA diesel clinging to $5.464 with a lag that won’t last. If you buy fuel and feed for a living, this one matters.

Sale Barn Pulse hits the country tape from Lone Star Stockyards, OKC West, Joplin, and Winter Livestock — head counts, price direction, and how local scarcity and green boards are showing up in actual checks. We also tip our hat to the high‑end horse and youth steer world with the NCHA Super Stakes results and RodeoHouston’s $1.5 million “Zinger” steer.

Inputs/Energy and the War Reel connect Hormuz tanker grabs, war‑risk insurance, and EIA draws to what you’ll pay for diesel and fertilizer in May. Rural Americana and Policy/Macro wrap it with the SDRP deadline, rural mental health, rural hospital bankruptcy, the Farm Bill coming out of House Rules, Monsanto v. Durnell, and the rest of the policy noise headed your way.

Stick around for the close — On This Day, sports, a quick recap, and your reminder to call FSA before you miss free disaster money.

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