
Live cattle futures are sliding on Thursday with midday losses of $1.72 to $1.90. Cash trade has been quiet so far this week. The Thursday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,026 head offered, with bids of $232-235. Feeder cattle futures are falling $2.12 to $5.60 in the front months. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up a penny to $358.32 on March 17.
After last week’s multi year high in beef export sales, USDA reported just 3,207 MT in the week ending on 3/12, the lowest sales total for any week since October 2023. Shipments were 13,571 MT in that week.