Cattle settled 17 to 85 cents lower on Friday, ahead of the USDA cattle reports. The feeders finished the day higher. August posted a net loss of 15 cents for the week. Cash trade was reported at $188 in the north last week, up $2-3, with the South reported $180-$181. Feeder cattle closed $0.82 to $1.27 higher for the week limiting August to a 72 cent drop for the week’s net move. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was 65 cents weaker on 7/19 at $237.83.
The NASS CoF report showed 11.204 million cattle were in 1,000+ head feedlots as of 7/1. That was a 1.8% drop from last year vs. average trade expectations at -2.2%. Placements were up 2.7% from last year with 1.678m head placed in June. Marketings were down 5% yr/yr at 1.957m head. Also from the report, the heifers were 39.89% of the total cattle on feed.
The bi-annual Cattle Inventory report had the total cattle herd at 95.9m head on July 1st. That was a 2.7% drop year over year. NASS reported 29.4m head of beef cows and 4.05 million replacement heifers. Those compare to 30.2m and 4.15m head respectively last year for a total drop of 2.6% to the beef breeding herd. The calf crop was down by 1.9% yr/yr, less than the -2.4% estimate.
USDA reported Wholesale Boxed Beef prices as $302.74 for Choice and $276.73 for Select – an 18c and a $2.02 increase respectively. USDA estimated the week’s federally inspected cattle slaughter at 628k head through Saturday. That is down from 633k last week and from 663k during the same week last year.
Aug 23 Cattle closed at $180.025, down $0.300,
Oct 23 Cattle closed at $181.900, down $0.850,
Dec 23 Cattle closed at $185.175, down $0.800,
Aug 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $245.925, up $0.825
Sep 23 Feeder Cattle closed at $249.275, up $0.975
On the date of publication, Alan Brugler did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
