
Live cattle futures are rebounding on Thursday, with contracts up 7 cents to $1.85 at midday. Cash trade saw some light action in across the country at $239-240 on Wednesday. The Thursday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed no sales on the 1,646 head offered with bids at $238. Feeder cattle futures are slipping lower so far on Thursday, with contracts another 77 cents to $2.50 in the red. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down 99 cents at $372.00 on October 21.
On Thursday morning, the White House raised the tariff rate quota on Argentina beef imports to 80,000 MT from the 20,000 MT level as previously expected. Later in the day on Wednesday, USDA also released plans to help expand the US herd, in part by opening up more federal lands for grazing.