Cattle Showing Mixed Action on Monday

Live cattle futures are trading with 20 to 45 cent losses so far across most contracts on Monday. Cash trade last week improved ~$2 from last week, with Southern sales tallied at $190-191, with the North at $190-192. 

Feeder cattle futures are showing gains of 10 to 50 cents at midday. Monday’s OKC feeder cattle auction has an estimated 9,000 head for sale, with demand initially noted as good. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down 47 cents at $249.09 on October 24. 

Friday afternoon’s Cattle on Feed report showed September placements down 1.91% from last year at 2.156 million head, with marketings up 2.04% at 1.698 million head. October 1 on feed inventory was down 0.03% from a year ago at 11.6 million head.

Cold Storage data showed a total of 413.79 million lbs of beef stocks on September 30. That is the lowest for the month in 10 years and up 6.48% from the prior month. 

USDA wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed in the Monday morning report. Choice boxes were up $2.37 to $324.61/cwt, with Select 66 cents lower @ $294.42. The Chc/Select spread widened to $30.19. USDA estimated the weekly federally inspected cattle slaughter at 623,000 head for last week. That is 15,000 head above the previous week but down 11,701 head from the same week last year.

Oct 24 Live Cattle  are at $189.500, down $0.200,

Dec 24 Live Cattle  are at $188.725, down $0.425,

Feb 25 Live Cattle  are at $189.650, down $0.275,

Oct 24 Feeder Cattle  are at $249.900, up $0.275

Nov 24 Feeder Cattle  are at $248.675, up $0.100

Jan 25 Feeder Cattle  are at $246.075, up $0.450