USA: Cattle market review for week 23 from June 10, 2024

The August live cattle contract continued to struggle despite continued strength in the cash market. Judging by the behavior of futures, you might think that the cash market is collapsing. Cash prices averaged slightly lower last week prior to Thursday's trading, but on Friday MEAT processors gave in and raised purchase prices to new weekly highs of 192.00. This should push the average higher and, depending on Monday morning trading, push the average above last week's level.

There are few cattle available on the market inside and outside of feedlots (which is why feedlot cattle prices remain high), so with corn prices low enough, producers are willing to keep cattle in feedlots longer (over 120 days) to gain enough weight.

Experts have expressed the view that fears about bird flu are exaggerated. There are rumors that there is a massive culling of cattle, and when they talk about the numbers, it turns out that about 12-20 cows are slaughtered. The dairy industry is not seeing an increase in culling. Any concerns about beef becoming contaminated and ending up in food supplies are also overblown, market participants say, as inspections and tests have shown beef products to be safe.

An estimated 118,000 HEAD of cattle were sent to slaughter on Friday, down from 122,000 last week and up from 115,594 last year. Saturday's slaughter is expected to total 7,000 head, down from 43,000 last week and up from 6,571 last year. Estimated slaughter for the week (so far) is 614,000, up from 540,000 last week and down from 616,547 last year.

WEEKLY COST OF CUTTINGS CAT.CHOICE

CATTLE SALES

Sale of livestock, heads

Average weight

Week 22

Week 23

Weekly growth,%

Week 22

Week 23

Weekly growth,%

Bulls (live weight)

1,011

5 372

431.4%

1 390

1 442

3.7%

Heifers (live weight)

2 268

3,953

74.3%

1 263

1 222

-3.2%

Steers (slaughter weight)

952

714

-25.0%

946

901

-4.8%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

235

40

-83.0%

813

834

2.6%

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF CALLS

BEEF PRODUCTION

Index

Week 23

Previous week

A year ago

Weekly growth,%

Growth over the year, %

Slaughter volume

614,000

540,000

617,000

13.7%

-0.5%

Live weight

1 398

1 400

1 340

-0.1%

4.3%

Slaughter weight

852

852

809

0.0%

5.3%

Beef production (million pounds)

522.0

459.3

497.6

13.7%

4.9%

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 22

Week 23

Weekly growth,%

June

181.50

182.18

0.4%

August

178.45

177.18

-0.7%

October

180.80

179.68

-0.6%

CME: Feeder Cattle Futures

August

256.40

254.93

-0.6%

September

258.13

255.85

-0.9%

October

258.98

256.45

-1.0%

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