Live cattle prices are about 20 cents off their earlier lows for Wednesday but are still down by 57 to 85 cents at midday. Feeders are down by triple digits so far on 0.7% to 1.25% losses. USDA has little to no cash trade to report 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 shown lower in the AM report with a $1.33 drop in Choice and a 98 cent lower Select quote. 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 are at $158.550, down $0.300,
April 23 Cattle are at $162.175, down $0.850,
Jun 23 Cattle are at $158.525, down $0.625,
Cash Cattle Indexwas $156.000, from $156.00 last week
Mar 23 Feeder Cattle are at $183.125, down $3.025
April 23 Feeder Cattle are at $187.625, down $2.425
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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