Download PDF The cash cattle market eased about a dollar lower this week to average close to $177.50. Prices in the South fell mostly in the $173-174 range while in the North $177-179 was common. Trade volume was comparable to the week before and probably adequate relative to the current kill level. Packers will have …
Download PDF Beef packers managed to barely keep their heads above water this week after a sharp increase in cash cattle prices the week before. Packer margins are estimated at $4/head, down from $34 the week before. In order to stay afloat, packers had to press hard on the beef market and they found some …
Download PDF After rising $4/cwt. in each of the previous two weeks, the cash cattle market really outdid itself this week with a $7/cwt. increase to average just over $180 for the week. Trading started in earnest on Wednesday, which is a bullish signal in and of itself. Packers weren’t even able to pretend that …
Download PDF The cash cattle market exploded higher this week as packers paid just over $173/cwt. for live cattle, up $4.34 from the week before. In the northern dressed markets, the gain was even more impressive, up $8.26/cwt. to $278.62. Looking back over the most recent two-week period, live prices have added $8.67/cwt. and dressed …
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 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 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 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 The beef market slowed down this week, with the Choice cutout only gaining $1.93/cwt on a weekly average basis and the Select cutout up $4.78. That caused the Choice-Select spread to narrow down to $10.69/cwt, which is the smallest spread in almost a year. Packers have incentive to keep trying to push the …
Download PDF The cash cattle market continued its march higher this week, with the majority of transactions in the South registering $164, up almost $3 from the previous week’s average. The packer’s sales desk was busy raising asking prices on beef and we saw the Choice cutout increase almost $11/cwt and the Select cutout gained …