Red Close for Cattle Futures

The first trade day of the week left cattle futures 30 to 87 cents in the red. Feeder cattle futures ended with 2 to 80 cent losses across the front months. Cash trade so far remains mostly unestablished, save for very limited $166 in the WCB. Last week’s activity was mostly near $164. USDA’s weekly Feeder Auction Review had 6k head sold, but only 8% heifers. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 3/17 was $188.01, up by 14 cents. 

USDA’s NASS confirmed 11.645m head of cattle were in 1,000+ head feedlots as of 3/1. That was down 4.5% from last year, matching the trade average guess, and was the lightest inventory since October. February placements came in at 1.734m head, a 7.2% drop. The trade was looking for a 6% yr/yr drop on average. The monthly update showed 1.735m head were marketed in February, which was 5% below last year and slightly fewer than expected. 

USDA’s wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed on Monday, with Choice down by $2.33 and Select $1.50 higher. That had the Chc/Sel spread to $7.08. USDA estimated Monday’s FI cattle slaughter at 125k head. That matched last week and is 8,000 more than the same Monday last year.  

Apr 23 Cattle  closed at $162.025, down $0.300,

Jun 23 Cattle  closed at $155.525, down $0.875,

Aug 23 Cattle  closed at $155.750, down $0.650,

Mar 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $188.200, down $0.650

Apr 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $194.625, down $0.025

Aug 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $214.700, down $0.600