Cattle Futures Red on Wednesday

Live cattle closed the midweek session with a triple digit pullback in the Feb contract. The other nearbys were 32 to 67 cents in the red at the bell. The weekly FCE auction sold 379 of the 3,050 head listed for $137. One smaller pen of steers went for $129. The unsold cattle were stuck between $137-$138 asks and $135-$137 bids. Outside of the FCE, USDA reported cash sales mostly at $135 in the South with the full range for the week between $134 to $138. Feeders closed triple digits weaker on Wednesday, save for a 20 cent drop in the Jan. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down 3 cents on 1/11 to $162.21.   

USDA’s monthly look at quarterly beef production saw a 55m lb bump to Q4 2021 leaving the full year production at 27.95b lbs. For 2022, USDA raised production 165m lbs to 27.165 billion. Getting there the USDA trimmed Q1 by 10m while raising Q2 production 125m. Quarters 3 and 4 were each up by 25m lbs. 

USDA quoted afternoon Wholesale Boxed Beef at $279.93 for Choice and $270.98 for Select. That was a $1.71 cwt. bump and a $2.35 cwt. increase respectively. USDA estimates the week’s FI cattle slaughter at 341,000 head through Wednesday. That trails last year’s pace by 9k head. 

Feb 22 Cattle  closed at $136.575, down $1.100,

Jun 22 Cattle  closed at $136.250, down $0.600,

Jan 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $161.875, down $0.200

Mar 22 Feeder Cattle  closed at $165.025, down $1.325