Download PDF Cattle feeders held out until late on Friday and were rewarded with cash prices that were close to $4/cwt. higher. Trade in the Southern Plains developed at $182 and in the northern dressed market there were reports of cattle changing hands at $287-290, up $7-10/cwt from the previous week’s average. If there was …
Download PDF Two things became more apparent this week: the weather event in early January set cattle back more than previously thought and packers still remain short on inventory to fuel kills in early February. The confluence of those things helped to boost the cash cattle market $2-4 over last week’s prices. Trade in the …
Download PDF Small purchases in the cash cattle market over the past few weeks finally caught up with packers and they found themselves having to pay up in order to secure enough live inventory to operate next week. It looks like the average live price will be close to $175.40, which would be up about …
Download PDF Following the previous week’s weather events, things slowly returned to normal in the cattle and beef complex this week. The cutouts continued higher as buyers chased product in an environment of tighter availability brought on by the previous week’s small kill. On a weekly average basis, the Choice cutout gained $11.89 while the …
Download PDF Weather was arguably the biggest factor to affect the cattle and beef complex this week. Snowstorms rolled across the Plains, hindering movement of cattle to slaughter and forcing packers to cancel shifts at several plants. That bout of snow will be followed this weekend by plunging temperatures as a polar vortex descends into …
Download PDF Cash cattle traded in North this week in the $174-175 range and while trade was a little slower to get started in the South, it looks like some trade late on Friday happened at a steady $173. Thus, the weekly average should be around $174.30, up close to $2 from the week before. …
Download PDF The beef markets were mixed this week, with the Choice cutout losing $1.57/cwt. on a weekly average basis while the Select cutout added $2.88. Cash cattle traded a little higher, with the weekly average expected to be around $170.35. That would be up $1.64 from last week’s average. Beef prices are starting to …
Download PDF The cash cattle market traded lower again this week, with transactions in the Southern Plains at mostly $170, down $1 from the week before, while trades in the North were from $167-170, with more activity located at the lower end of that range. For the week, it looks like the average 5-area live …
Download PDF It was another tough week in the cattle and beef markets. The nearby Dec LC contract lost nearly $4/cwt., finishing up at $165.45. On Thursday, it settled three dollars lower than that. Why were traders so pessimistic? Well, there wasn’t much good news in either the cash cattle market or the beef market. …
Download PDF The rib primal finally came to life this week, jumping a little over $25/cwt. to average $573.27. That isn’t too far off of the all-time record high at $609/cwt. set back in September of 2021. This is a result of last-minute holiday buying and is carefully orchestrated by packers because they will be …