Cattle Dropping after CoF Report

Front month fat cattle futures were $0.60 to $1.12 in the red, but are 50 cents off the session low. Midday feeder cattle are trading off their session lows as well but are still $0.12 to $1.55 in the red. USDA cited the week’s cash trade as mostly near $188 in the South, a $2 increase for the week, and mostly near $190 in the North. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was another 41 cents higher on 3/20 to $251.82. 

The NASS CoF update showed 11.838 million head on feed on March 1st. That was a 1.3% increase over Mar ’23 compared to the 0.9% increase expected. Placements also came in over the expectations with 1.89m head placed in Feb. That was a 9.7% increase yr/yr, as the top end of estimates was +8.8%. Feb marketings were 1.793m head, or 3.4% above last year compared to the +3.8% average trade guess.

USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were lower on Friday afternoon as Choice fell by $3.01 and Select was $2.26 weaker. USDA reported the week’s beef output at 500.4 million lbs. That was down 1m from last week, and was 2.5% under the same week last year. Cattle slaughter was 598k head for the week, also 3k head below last week and 4.8% behind the same week last year. The YTD totals were shown at 5.96 billion lbs and 7.133m head, compared to 6.211b lbs and 7.54m head last year. 

Apr 24 Cattle  closed at $186.425, down $1.075,

Jun 24 Cattle  closed at $182.350, down $0.550,

Aug 24 Cattle  closed at $180.675, down $0.825,

Mar 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $250.075, up $0.125

Apr 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $251.450, down $0.050