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Cattle Market Report
Sat 04 Feb 2012 08:00:00 CT
Related Keywords: Agriculture
Related Keywords: Agriculture
Morning Cattle Market Report
April cattle closed slightly lower on the session yesterday, and stayed inside of Wednesday's trading range. Sluggish weekly export sales along with strength in the US dollar helped to pressure the market early. There was some support from talk of a developing snowstorm in the central plains but weakness in the beef market helped to hold the market at lower price levels. Nebraska could see 6 to 8 inches of snow, which is likely to be disruptive for marketings. Ideas that higher prices may be cutting into demand for US beef abroad plus the continuation of deep-in-the-red profit margins from packers are widely seen as short-term negative factors for the cattle market. Cash markets are bid at $120.00 this week and traded at $124.00 last week, down $2.00 for the previous week as offers have emerged this week at $126.00. Slaughter came in at 119,000 head which was a little lower than market expectations. This brings the total for the week so far to 482,000 head, down from 490,000 head last week at this time and down from 485,000 head a year ago. Weekly U.S. beef export sales for the week ending January 26th came in at 4,100 metric tonnes, compared with the prior 4-week average of 14,167 metric tonnes. Cumulative sales for 2012 have reached 133,000 metric tonnes, down 5.6% from last year's pace. Boxed beef cutout values were down $1.20 at mid-session yesterday and closed $1.08 lower at $183.19. This was down from $184.62 the prior week. Average dressed steer weights for the week ending January 21st came in at 854 pounds, unchanged from the previous week and up from 849 pounds last year. Beef production for the same week came in at 483.4 million pounds, down 1.7% from last year.
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