USA: Cattle market overview for the 20th week of 2022

Livestock futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) closed mixed on Thursday as traders awaited data from the United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA) on cattle feedlot numbers.

The USDA report on cattle fattening is expected to show that by May 1, the number of feedlots in the US increased by 1.3% compared to last year. Feedlot placement is also expected to be down 4.6% year-over-year in April, with sales down 2%, according to brokerage Allendale.

"The U.S. beef market will be well supplied in early September," Allendale said.

Analysts note that futures have come under pressure recently as high meat prices threaten to dampen demand in the US, especially for expensive cuts of beef.

US Senators Elizabeth Warren and Mike Rounds on Thursday introduced a bipartisan resolution asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate beef companies for possible price fixing.

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WEEKLY CUT CHOICE COST

CATTLE SALES

Sale of livestock, heads

Average weight

05/13/2022

05/20/2022

Growth per week,%

05/13/2022

05/20/2022

Growth,%

Bulls (live weight)

28 371

27 824

-1.9%

1436

1421

-1.0%

Heifers (live weight)

13 447

15 900

18.2%

1 296

1310

1.1%

Bulls (slaughter. weight)

16 302

11 930

-26.8%

920

921

0.1%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

3715

4557

22.7%

835

819

-1.9%

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF BULLS

BEEF PRODUCTION

Slaughter volume

20 week

Week 20, 2021

Growth per year,%

Live weight

680 000

672 000

1.2%

slaughter weight

1371

1360

0.8%

Beef production (million pounds)

828

823

0.6%

Beef production (thousand tons)

561.8

552.2

1.7%

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 19

Week 20

Growth per week,%

June

132.08

131.58

-0.4%

August

132.35

131.55

-0.6%

October

139.13

137.43

-1.2%

Futures for fattening cattle

May

157.88

153.40

-2.8%

August

168.03

163.93

-2.4%

September

170.68

167.00

-2.2%

You can learn more about the state of the cattle market in the USA (cattle prices, beef prices by category, production dynamics) in the weekly reviews of the meat market in Russia and in the world from Meatinfo.ru.

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