Feeders Rallied Monday

Feeder cattle rallied into the new week of trading with triple digit gains of over 1%. The April FC contract closed $2.57 higher and set another new contract high. Fat cattle also gained ground to new contract highs in April, with $0.32 to $0.67 gains across the front months. There were no confirmed cash trades for finished cattle on Monday. USDA confirmed Friday catch up sales from $163 to $167 across the feeding regions. The bulk of trade last week was near $165. USDA data had 11k head of feeder cattle sold in the OKC auction review, prices were shown $1-$5 higher for the steers. The CME Feeder Cattle Index from 3/3 was another $1.78 higher to $187.21.  

Wholesale Boxed Beef quotes were mixed in the PM report on Monday, as Choice was up 88 cents but Select was down by 39. That had the Chc/Sel spread at $13.73. USDA estimated FI cattle slaughter as 125k head for Monday, up by 1,000 from last week and 3,000 from the same Monday last year. 

Apr 23 Cattle  closed at $166.100, up $0.675,

Jun 23 Cattle  closed at $161.000, up $0.325,

Aug 23 Cattle  closed at $160.475, up $0.575,

Mar 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $192.075, up $2.075

Apr 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $198.600, up $2.575