Live cattle futures are mixed at midday, with contracts down 60 cents to 67 cents higher. Limits are expanded to $12.75 for today following the limit gains in feeders for Thursday. Cash trade has crept up to $258 this week following the $256-257 earlier in the week. The Thursday Fed Cattle Exchange showed $258 sales on 194 of the 388 head offered. Feeder cattle futures are falling back into the weekend, with contracts down $1.70 to $2.20 in the front months. Limits are expanded to $16 for today. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another $4.93 on June 1 to $359.21.
The Thursday APHIS update on the New World Screwworm showed a total of 2,077 active cases of in Mexico as of Wednesday. There were 155 active cases in the bordering state of Tamaulipas (10 within a range of 79-98 miles of the US border), 83 active in Nuevo Leon (28 within a range of 50-98 miles of the US border), and 35 in Coahuila (22 within 25-97 miles of the US border). Outside of the case in Southern Texas reported this week, no other active cases have been reported.
