Live cattle futures saw some buying into the Friday close, with contracts up 50 cents to $1.025 and October down 77 cents this week. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange showed no sales on the 2,552 head listed, with a few bids of $230-232. Outside of that, there has been some light cash trade at $230 in the North, down $2-5 from last week. A few Southern trades were completed late at $233, down $4. Feeder cattle futures posted $2.55 to $3.05 gains in the front months on Friday, as October was 17 cents higher this week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up $0.94 at $362.57 on October 2.
USDA Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were mixed in the Friday afternoon report, with the Chc/Sel spread narrowing to $16.89. Choice boxes were down 95 cents at $362.77, while Select was $1.98 higher to $345.38. USDA federally inspected cattle slaughter for this week was estimated at 557,000 head. That was 2,000 head above last week but 54,571 below the same week last year.
