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.
