Cattle Traders to Utilize Cold Storage Data

The feeder cattle market ended mixed but mostly higher with Thursday gains of 62 to 77 cents for March and April. The August contract was also up, but by just 5 cents, while May closed 17 cents in the red. Fat cattle on the other hand saw a relatively firm day, with April staying in a 68 cent trading range. At the close, the front months were 10 to 42 cents in the red. The only sale for the FCE’s 913 head listed was for 84 South Dakota heifers at $164. USDA confirmed some light cash trade on Thursday matching the sales yesterday. The bulk of action this week has been near $163 in the South and $165 in the WCB. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down by 11 cents to $187.69 for 3/21.  

USDA’s NASS saw 500.206m lbs of beef in the coolers on February 28. That was down from 534m in Jan and 531.6m in Feb ’22 cold storage.

Beef export sales from the week that ended 3/16 were 18,642 MT. That was a 5% increase for the week, but was still down from 27.5k MT booked during the same week last year. USDA’s FAS reported South Korea as the top buyer with 10.8k MT of the total. Total beef commitments were marked at 167,715 MT through 3/16. That is 44% behind last year’s record pace. 

USDA’s wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed in Thursday’s PM report, with Choice up by $1.48 and Select 93 cents weaker. That left the Chc/Sel spread at $13.89. Choice ribs were quoted at $462.18 and Select was shown at $433.81 cwt. USDA estimated the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 502k head through Thursday. That is 1,000 head more than last week’s pace and is 17,000 head above the same week last year. 

Apr 23 Cattle  closed at $162.150, down $0.150,

Jun 23 Cattle  closed at $155.800, down $0.100,

Aug 23 Cattle  closed at $155.700, down $0.275,

Mar 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $189.025, up $0.775

Apr 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $195.000, up $0.625

Aug 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $214.625, up $0.050