The activity within the beef cuts has been as important as the interplay between the meats. There is some thought that the season improvement in demand for beef is finally upon us.īeef Feature Activity Index. Box prices turned higher late Thursday and jumped higher Friday to close the week. The spread between futures and proforma break-even prices has made it difficult for packers to negotiate forward contracts. Nevertheless, more cattle in the spot markets will provide more liquidity to the cash markets. Not all of these cattle find their way into mandatory price reporting. The decline of forward contracts pushes more cattle into the cash market where they are sold either as grid or negotiated prices. The total number of forward contracted cattle has declined as deferred futures and packer basis bids fail to provide sellers a profit margin for feeding. Packers will always be willing to take a price risk off the producer’s plate in return for an extra margin. The driver in forward purchases of cattle will always be forward sales of beef. Basis levels will move up and down as processors want to add to forward contracts or not. The report is also reflective of the current status of fed cattle offerings in each area.įorward Cattle Contracts: Forward contracts will always bear some relationship to the corresponding futures month closest to the delivery month for the cattle. The Weekly Steer and Heifer Grading Report is indicative of regional supplies of choice and prime cattle and often is determinative of regional differences is live price. The combined steer and heifer weights can easily be influenced when the proportion of steers to heifers in the weekly slaughter changes. Carcass weights will be fundamental in determining total beef production.

The latest report shows carcass weights at 884# up 3# from prior week and 2# under last year. The report is published each Tuesday and includes the previous week’s change in carcass weights and quality grading. The Comprehensive Fed Cattle Weekly Report offers the most current information on the current status of fed cattle being harvested. Beef producers are able to measure the marketing price for their cattle compared to the national averages. The report summarizes the distributed price levels for each category of sale such as Negotiated/Formula/Forward Contracts. On Tuesday of each week, USDA releases a weighted average price report for all cattle sold the previous week. Live cattle futures were higher following a sharp rise in box prices and renewed interest from packers and retailers - both willing to add more inventory.īenchmarking. Heifer retention has yet to occur in the herd build up.Ĭattle Futures. The cow slaughter will increase during the final quarter of this year but remain under last year. The year on year reductions in slaughter are reflective of the decline in the nation’s cattle herd – both cows and fed cattle. The slaughter reduction this week was 41,000 head. The slaughter this past week was 628,000 up 16,000 head from the previous week.

Late Friday bids were at $184 in the north that failed to purchase additional cattle. Dressed sales were $288-$290 in the north. Northern live sales were reported mainly from $183-$184 while southern live sales are mainly $182-$183 - with some sales across the regions at par prices but it is never possible to accurately compare the pen to pen comparisons. Good volumes of sales last week will leave cattle owners amply supplies with the leverage to reverse downward pressures on live prices caused by red ink at the beef plants.

A slow down in slaughter rates combined with the calendar moving forward towards the holiday season has caused the cutout to respond but the follow through will confirm a season improvement in prices for both live and box prices. The question this week will be slaughter rates and box prices. Oil prices are always the first to respond and last night was no exception with oil up $3. War will always bring surprises to the markets and even if it is not our war, it could draw us in with unforeseen developments.

Feeder cattle futures forecast