Download PDF The cash cattle market caught fire again this week, with price levels in some instances surging $8-9/cwt. Trade in the North occurred in the $185-188/cwt range and in the South prices ranged from $175-180. Recall that last week’s southern trade averaged around $171. What caused packers to suddenly chase after cattle like there …
Download PDF For the first time in six weeks, the pork cutout failed to advance. The cutout averaged $82.51/cwt. this week, down $1.36 from last week’s average. If that seems like a small thing, it probably is, but futures traders took it very seriously and pummeled the entire curve this week. Friday-to-Friday, the July contract …
Download PDF This was a week where there were plenty of reasons why the cash cattle market should have traded lower. Packers were buying for a short kill the following week and they were going to have access to their June contract cattle in just a few days. Instead, cattle feeders surprised everyone by digging …
Download PDF For the fifth week in a row, the pork cutout was up just a little over a dollar, averaging $83.86/cwt. The slow, steady climb in the cutout represents some very modest demand improvement and slowly declining pork production. But the pace of price improvement has been glacial and that is very unusual at …
Download PDF Cattle feeders managed to squeeze a little more out of the packers this week as cash cattle averaged close to $174.85, up about $0.50/cwt. from last week’s average. That is the second week in a row that packers have been unable to pressure cattle prices even though cutout values have been falling. Jun …
Download PDF The pork cutout continued to work its way slowly higher, gaining $1.56/cwt. to average $82.48 for the week. Almost all of that gain was driven by a strong showing in the ham complex. Bellies still have yet to waken from their 2023 slumber, but the forecast has them moving gradually higher as production …
Download PDF Beef packers pushed the kill harder than they should have this week, with the fed kill coming in at 503k. That is 13k over the top end of the range that our model says should be available during May and it very well could paint packers into a corner just like the large …
Download PDF The pork cutout continued to work slowly higher this week, up $1.80/cwt. on a weekly average basis. Small week-on-week changes in the cutout have been a persistent feature of this market since January. Today the futures bulls showed their frustration with this slow motion pork market by trashing the entire futures curve. They …
Download PDF The beef market stalled this week with the Choice cutout adding a mere $0.11/cwt. and the Select cutout up $0.15/cwt. Beef buyers aren’t happy about a Choice cutout over $309 and a Select cutout over $288, but their ability to resist strong beef prices is limited by continued small fed kills and low …
