
Live cattle futures are showing steady to 20 cent lower trade at midday on Thursday. Cash trade has yet to be reported so far this week. Thursday morning’s Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,224 head, with bids at $238. Feeder cattle futures are down $1 to $2.05 so far on the day. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another 66 cents to $368.93 on March 3.
The weekly Export Sales report from USDA showed a total of just 11,163 MT of beef sold in the week ending on February 26. That was a calendar year low. Shipments were up to 14,914 MT in that week, which was the second largest for 2026.