Cattle Market at New Record Highs

Live cattle futures closed the WASDE report day with 25 to 92 cent gains led by the April contract. April’s $1.09 rally to $172.47 set a new all time high for the lead month contract. April still had 13,895 contracts of OI as of Monday’s settle, with no delivery notices issued on First Notice Day - the oldest dated long was Feb 9th of 2022. That is one very patient bull! The Tuesday FCE auction had $170 bids against $173 asks for no sales on the 1,292 head listed. Feeder cattle futures closed the session $1.17 to $2.20 in the black – taking the board to new life of contract highs past beyond the April contract. USDA’s OKC feeder auction review showed $5-$9 higher prices for the 4.8k head sold. The CME Feeder Cattle Index for 4/10 was 32 cents weaker at $193.01. 

USDA updated their quarterly beef projections, with a lighter Q1 and Q4 output but a significantly higher Q3 output. On net the 150m larger Q3 pushed the 2023 total beef production 110m lbs above the March figure, to 26.775 billion. 

USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were $295.10 in Choice and $282.04 cwt. for Select this afternoon. That was a $2.19 increase for Choice and a $3.64 increase for Select. Tuesday’s federally inspected cattle slaughter was 126k head. That set the week to date running total at 239,000 head, and trails last week’s pace by 4k head. 

Apr 23 Cattle  closed at $172.300, up $0.925,

Jun 23 Cattle  closed at $163.950, up $0.250,

Aug 23 Cattle  closed at $163.250, up $0.350,

Apr 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $202.100, up $1.175

May 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $207.825, up $2.200

Sep 23 Feeder Cattle  closed at $227.625, up $1.600