Live cattle futures closed Thursday with contracts up 87 cents to $1.30. Cash trade has been mostly $372 dressed as well as a few live sales of $235-236. The Thursday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed sales of $235.50 on 447 of the 1,656 head offered, with other bids of $231-235. Feeder cattle futures were down 30 to 50 cents in the front months, with other contracts up a dime to 75 cents. Open interest was up 1,130 contracts. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was down another $3.83 to $360.97 on March 11.
The weekly APHIS update on New World Screwworm showed 9 new cases (7 in cattle) in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which took the total to 23 active cases in the bordering state (15 in cattle).
