USA: Cattle market overview for the 24th week of 2022

 Livestock futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) closed higher on Friday as cash prices soared. At the same time, concerns about higher inflation in the US put pressure on cattle futures at the beginning of last week.

Cash market livestock prices remained high after trading as high as $140 a quintal on Thursday in Kansas and Texas, traders said. According to them, this is $4 more than the previous week and at the beginning of last week.

The most active August livestock futures rose 0.275 cents to 136.575 cents a pound. The October cattle contract rose 0.350 cents to 142.425 cents and hit its highest price since June 9. The cost of fattening livestock has also risen.

Traders adjusted positions ahead of the weekend, brokers said, as CME livestock markets will be closed during the Monday afternoon session for the June holidays. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will release its monthly Cattle on Feed report next Friday.

Beef processors slaughtered about 124,000 cattle on Friday, up from 118,000 a year earlier, according to the USDA.

Meatpackers' margin fell to $154.05 per HEAD of cattle from $222.30 per head a week ago, marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com said.

WEEKLY CUT CHOICE COST

CATTLE SALES

Sale of livestock, heads

Average weight

06/10/2022

06/17/2022

Growth per week,%

06/10/2022

06/17/2022

Growth,%

Bulls (live weight)

25 347

41 232

62.7%

1406

1431

1.8%

Heifers (live weight)

7 582

15 088

99.0%

1063

1 300

22.3%

Bulls (slaughter. weight)

10 781

14 663

36.0%

912

918

0.7%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

1618

3 129

93.4%

842

817

-3.0%

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF BULLS

BEEF PRODUCTION

Slaughter volume

24 week

Week 24, 2021

Growth per year,%

Live weight

674 000

670 000

0.6%

slaughter weight

1346

1345

0.1%

Beef production (million pounds)

813

814

-0.1%

Beef production (thousand tons)

541.3

539.5

0.3%

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 23

Week 24

Growth per week,%

June

136.20

138.03

1.3%

August

136.20

136.58

0.3%

October

141.98

142.43

0.3%

Futures for fattening cattle

August

174.48

172.95

-0.9%

September

176.05

174.80

-0.7%

October

177.55

176.53

-0.6%

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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