Triple Digit Drop in Cattle On Feed Reaction

Live cattle futures were off their lows, by as much as $1, for the close on Monday but were still triple digits lower with losses of up to $1.52. Feeder cattle also fell by triple digits with $1.05 to $2.37 losses on Monday. USDA had last week’s cash trade as mostly near $188 in the South and mostly near $190 in the North. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was another 41 cents higher on 3/20 to $251.82. 

The NASS CoF update showed 11.838 million head on feed on March 1st. That was a 1.3% increase over Mar ’23 compared to the 0.9% increase expected. Placements also came in over the expectations with 1.89m head placed in Feb. That was a 9.7% increase yr/yr, as the top end of estimates was +8.8%. Feb marketings were 1.793m head, or 3.4% above last year compared to the +3.8% average trade guess.

NASS Cold Storage data showed 442.75 million lbs of beef was in the freezer in Feb. That was a 6% drop from Jan stocks and was the tightest Feb supply since 2014. 

USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were shown at $310.89 for Choice on Monday afternoon and at $301.96 for Select. That was a 17 cent increase for Choice and a 49c increase for Select. Monday’s FI cattle slaughter was 118k head, which starts the week 2k behind last week and 6k head behind the same week last year. 

Apr 24 Cattle  closed at $186.200, down $1.300,

Jun 24 Cattle  closed at $181.600, down $1.300,

Aug 24 Cattle  closed at $179.975, down $1.525,

Mar 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $249.450, down $0.500

Apr 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $250.450, down $1.050

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