US: Cattle Market Review Week 19, May 12, 2025

White House officials described U.S. -China trade talks in Geneva over the weekend as a step toward reducing tensions and containing the trade war between the world's two largest economies. While CHINA is not a major buyer of U.S. beef, positive market sentiment nonetheless filtered into cattle futures .

Despite some concerns that price-conscious consumers would shun expensive beef, packaged beef prices remained high for much of the week.

WEEKLY COST OF CUT OUT CAT.CHOICE

CATTLE SALES

Sale of cattle, heads

Average weight

Week 18

Week 19

Growth per week,%

Week 18

Week 19

Growth per week,%

Bulls (live weight)

30 355

25 308

-16.6%

1,484

1,485

0.1%

Heifers (live weight)

12 891

14 156

9.8%

1 357

1 304

-3.9%

Bulls (slaughter weight)

12 345

8 830

-28.5%

973

954

-2.0%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

1 899

1 785

-6.0%

8 833

849

-90.4%

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE BULL PRICE

BEEF PRODUCTION                                                                     

Indicator

Week 19

Previous week

A year ago

Growth per week,%

Growth per year, %

Volume of cattle slaughter

559,000

559,000

616,000

0.0%

-9.3%

Live weight

1,437

1,436

1 401

0.1%

2.6%

Slaughter weight

877

877

854

0.0%

2.7%

Beef Production (million pounds)

489,0

490,0

525,0

-0.2%

-6.9%

WEEKLY CHOICE/SELECT PRICE SHOULDER

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 18

Week 19

Growth per week,%

June

211.10

214.68

1.7%

August

206.78

209.58

1.4%

October

204.48

206.95

1.2%

CME: Feeder Cattle Futures

May

294.95

297.98

1.0%

August

296.90

300,30

1.1%

September

295.55

299.03

1.2%

You can learn more about the state of the cattle market in the usa (cattle prices, cost of beef by category, production dynamics) in the weekly reviews of the MEAT market in RUSSIA and in the world from Meatinfo.ru. Weekly reviews are available as part of a subscription.