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Sluggish start to the week for the cattle complex, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Live cattle futures had a tight trading range all day and spent most of it, including the close at mildly lower money. While that was going on, the grain complex was on fire to the upside with corn gains in the teens, so pressure potential for the feeder market was ripe. Two different months in feeders closed a little over $1 lower and the rest were just mildly lower. I’d call that a victory and a relief we didn’t see much heavier selling. On the charts, the live cattle had most months tiptoe into new contract highs, but didn’t get any extension and backed down to…

Date: February 7th, 2022 Livestock futures finished mixed last week but solid gains week over week. Cash fed cattle trade $3 to $4 higher in TX and KS at $139 to $140 live. Trade in the North $3 to $6 higher at $138 to $140 live and mostly $222 dressed. Slaughter rates started the week on what could be termed near capacity pace. The winter storms that rolled through the middle of the country midweek though were said to have delayed nearby delivers and caused chainspeeds to slow ending another week with totals less than a year ago. Beef prices pulled back lower this past week as pork prices continued higher. Oklahoma Weekly Cattle Auction Summary Livestock Weighted Average Report for 1/30/2022 - 2/5/2022 Current…

Date: February 2nd, 2022 Green across the entire Ag sector except for the nearby lean hog contract set to expire the end of next week. February hogs did hit a new recent high before falling off as deferred hogs and deferred feeders hit new contract highs. The bullish semi-annual Cattle Inventory from USDA after the close Monday helped support further gains, yet seems like most of that was already baked in on Monday’s sharply higher trading. Cash fed cattle trade steady to $2 higher so far this week on only light volume in the North at $138 to $141 live and $218 to $220 dressed. Tulsa Livestock Auction - Tulsa, OK Livestock Weighted Average Report for 1/31/2022 This Week: 3,390 Last Report 1/24: 2,931 Last…

Date: January 31st, 2022 All livestock futures finishing the week in positive territory which helped push week over week gains for both live cattle and lean hogs. Cash fed cattle trade steady to $1 lower last week in TX and KS at $136 to $137 live. Trade in the North steady to $1 higher at $137 to $139 live and mostly $218 dressed. Chainspeeds are still gaining vs. the past few weeks but still lagging vs. a year ago for both cattle and hogs. Looking down the road there is still plenty of evidence that fed cattle supplies will get tight so long as processing can keep up the pace. Oklahoma Weekly Cattle Auction Summary Livestock Weighted Average Report for 1/23/2022 - 1/29/2022 Current Week:…

Date: January 24th, 2022 Cattle futures finished the week lower as lean hogs extended their recent rally. Cash fed cattle trade steady last week at $136 to $137 live and $218 dressed. Weekly export sales for the week ending January 13th were fairly routine for beef and bullish for pork. Net beef sales totaled 12,800 MT while pork sales totaled 38,700 MT. Bearish Cattle on Feed report after the close on Friday. Cattle on feed totaled 12.037 million head on January 1, 2022, 1% percent above January 1, 2021. The inventory included 7.36 million steers and steer calves, down 1% from the previous year and 4.68 million heifers and heifer calves, up 2% from 2021. Placements in feedlots during December totaled 1.96 million head, 6%…

Not a very good day for the cattle complex. Both the live and feeder markets started on the south side of unchanged and finished there as well. In the live cattle, losses were just minimal and the front month February contract still closed over the top of last week’s Southern Plains cash high. Feeders were under a little more pressure, pushing down more than $1 on the January. Cattle slaughter was a lot larger yesterday than expected, which was a good sign in a market that’s caught a lot of attention lately because of covid-induced worker shortages at slaughter and processing plants. Two weeks ago, we had the smallest weekday M-F kill tally since May 2020 in the middle of the early covid outbreak. Between…

Somewhat of an interesting day in the cattle yesterday because the product and cash side of the equation were right about as expected, but the futures trade finished strong, which wasn’t expected. Futures are supposed to be tied to cash, not product and cash was lower. I won’t beat the dead horse of talking about labor shortages in packing plants again, but I am going to reiterate the effects of what goes on when it happens. Shorter supplies out the back door of the plant mean higher prices in cutouts and it’s going to trickle down into higher prices at the meat counter as well. There’s no short supply of market ready cattle though, we just can’t find kill slots for them all and consequently,…

Well, if it wasn’t for the wheat market showing a few closes on the north side of unchanged, the entire ag sector would have been deep red at the close yesterday. In the meats, live and feeder cattle both had the majority of the close contract months down over $1. Hogs were down $2+ on a lot of contract months. There’s a big problem brewing in the meat industry again and it has Covid written all over it. For the last couple of weeks we’ve all seen the news stories of flare ups in cases all over the country and once again it’s causing labor issues at slaughter and processing plants everywhere. On a fairly consistent basis, daily kill totals are coming in lighter than…

Date: January 10th, 2022 All livestock futures under pressure to end the week and cattle futures under pressure for most of the week. The hope coming out of the holidays and into a new year would be full capacity slaughter and cash moving back higher. Cash fed cattle trade steady to slightly weaker though compared to the week previous. TX and KS trade at $138 live while trade in NE still holding a slight premium from $138 to $140 live and $220 on a dressed basis. Slaughter last week for both cattle and hogs well below a year ago. Demand has been strong leading to higher product prices, but slaughter must pick back up to keep slaughter ready inventory from building. Oklahoma Weekly Cattle Auction…

Date: January 5th, 2022 Mixed day for the Ag futures yesterday with grains sharply higher, cattle sharply lower and lean hogs lower on the nearby contract but all deferred contracts higher for the day. Fats and feeders gapped lower at the open and bottomed out late morning nearly $2 lower for live cattle and over $4 lower for feeders. Very light cash fed cattle so far this week from $138 to $140 live, steady with a week ago. I wouldn’t expect to see much volume until later this week as packers will look to lower bids, especially with futures lower. Good news though that beef prices continue to creep higher and packers are needing inventory in the near term as we get back up to…