Nearby cattle traded in a mostly tight range, and settled mixed but mostly lower within 40 cents of UNCH for pre-report positioning. The feeder cattle market was up by triple digits ahead of the report, led by a 1.21% gain in March. USDA has little to no cash trade to reported so far this week, maintaining $156 as last week’s market for the South and $248 for the Northern dressed market. The 1/30 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $180.42, up by 54 cents.
The semi-annual NASS cattle inventory counted 89.274m head on Jan 1. That was a 3% drop from last year’s inventory. Beef cows were 4% lower yr/yr with 28.92m head, but replacement heifers were down by a sharp 5.8% yr/yr to 5.164m head. The calf crop was reported at 34.464 million head compared to 35.166 last year.
Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed in the Tuesday PM report, with Choice down $2.01 and Select up $1.40. That dropped the Chc/Sel spread to $13.17. USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter at 248,000 head WTD through Tuesday, after a 5,000 head revision lower for Monday. That is now down 3,000 from last week after the revision, but up 9,000 head from the same week last year.
Feb 23 Cattle closed at $158.850, up $0.100,
Apr 23 Cattle closed at $163.025, down $0.325,
Jun 23 Cattle closed at $159.150, down $0.325,
Mar 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $186.150, up $2.225
Apr 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $190.050, up $1.775
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
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