The animal protein market was quiet to close out the day, and the month. Proteins on a whole increased relative to December, driven higher by the upswing in the soybean meal market and tighter production coming out of the holiday. Pet food demand has been strong to start the year, which helped to push pet grade poultry by product meal monthly average for the Southeast $79 over the December average. January finished at 205 percent of the price of nearby soybean meal, five points over the prior three year average and just above the 204 percent from 2018 and 2019. With production resuming to more normalized levels, expect the market to continue to track the soybean meal market in the near term. It’s reasonable to expect prices to move sideways as buyers gauge the volatility in early February.

…