Download PDF The cash cattle market lurched higher this week, adding $4.23/cwt to average $168.64/cwt. The futures market cheered this development, with the front contracts gaining over $5/cwt on the week. Exactly what spurred the sharp increase was unclear since the beef market was mostly a sideways affair and it looked like packers had adequate …
Download PDF Late last week the pork cutout posted a sharp drop and, while it didn’t drop much further this week, it didn’t go up any either. As a result, the pork cutout was down $4.92/cwt on a weekly average basis. The week the cutout averaged $80.97/cwt and when it was at that level back …
Download PDF The beef cutouts continued lower this week, with the Choice losing $3.49/cwt to average close to $281 and the Select dropping 2.41/cwt to average just over $270. The weakness was spread throughout the carcass with both middle meats and end meats posting modest declines. Last week’s beef production was up about 7 million …
Download PDF The dam finally broke in Lean Hog futures this week, sending prices cascading lower and forcing market participants to come to grips with the fact that pricing in the summer of 2023 isn’t going to be anywhere near what they saw in 2022. Coming into the week, the Jun contact was priced near …
Download PDF Turmoil in the outside markets had a big influence on the cattle and beef complex this week. Reports of bank failures and other banking problems drove the equity market down hard this week and that quickly spilled over into the cattle futures and then the cash cattle market. Anytime that it starts to …
Download PDF It was another good week for pork prices as the cutout added $2.22/cwt to average $87.64/cwt. Given how little the cutout has moved so far this year, any time that we get a move over $2, I would consider that constructive. The negotiated markets were about as flat as they could be with …
Download PDF The beef market started to ease lower this week with both the Choice and Select losing about $2/cwt on a weekly average basis. That made it difficult for cattle feeders to advance the cash market so the trade this week was mostly steady at just a little over $165/cwt. Traders have become so …
Download PDF After last week’s solid move higher in the cutout, this week it was back to the same-ole, same-ole with the cutout only adding a measly $0.39/cwt on the week. It was a similar situation in the negotiated hog markets where the WCB gained $0.32/cwt and the NDD was up $0.61/cwt. Packers got caught …
