USA: Cattle market review for week 29 from July 22, 2024
Photo is illustrative in nature. From open sources.
CME August live cattle futures fell 2.025 cents to 182.250 cents a pound. The most active October cattle ended down 2.550 cents at 183.025 cents. The October contract opened higher but fell quickly, missing Wednesday's high of 185.875 cents.
On Wall Street, US stocks fell on Thursday, with the DOW JONES Industrial Average falling 533.06 points, retreating from a series of consecutive record highs.
“The focus is on what's happening in the stock market. We are once again concerned about beef demand,” said Ted Seyfried, chief market strategist at Zaner Group.
Wholesale beef prices fell Thursday, with the beef price falling to $316.15 per cwt., down $2.01 from Wednesday.
Slower slaughter rates this week added to bearish sentiment, signaling weaker demand for cattle from MEAT processors. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported Thursday that cattle slaughter totaled 115,000 HEAD, down from 122,000 head a week ago and 124,355 head a year ago.
Live cattle futures were mixed at the close, awaiting news on the upcoming commercial cattle report from the COF report. Overall, cattle in the South traded between $187 and $188.50 last week, with beef selling at $310 and live at $196 in the North. The CME Cattle Price Index was down 8 cents on July 18 at $259.18.
Friday's Feedlot Cattle report showed June feedlot numbers were 1.564 million, down 6.85% year-on-year, while sales fell 8.74% to 1.786 million heads As a result, the fattening livestock reached 11.304 million heads by July 1, which is 0.54% more than last year.
WEEKLY COST OF CUTTINGS CAT.CHOICE
CATTLE SALES
Sale of livestock, heads
Average weight
Week 28
Week 29
Weekly growth,%
Week 28
Week 29
Weekly growth,%
Bulls (live weight)
28 265
16,878
-40.3%
1 445
1 444
-0.1%
Heifers (live weight)
11,836
6,854
-42.1%
1 317
1 281
-2.7%
Steers (slaughter weight)
4,968
8,954
80.2%
939
941
0.2%
Heifers (slaughter weight)
1,945
942
-51.6%
849
876
3.2%
WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF CALLS
BEEF PRODUCTION
Index
Week 29
Previous week
A year ago
Weekly growth,%
Growth over the year, %
Slaughter volume
584,000
601,000
626,000
-2.8%
-6.7%
Live weight
1 382
1 383
1 344
-0.1%
2.8%
Slaughter weight
844
844
813
0.0%
3.8%
Beef production (million pounds)
491.7
506.0
508.0
-2.8%
-3.2%
CME: Live Cattle Futures
Week 28
Week 29
Weekly growth,%
August
182.38
183.10
0.4%
October
184.08
183.48
-0.3%
December
185.48
184.68
-0.4%
CME: Feeder Cattle Futures
August
258.60
255.60
-1.2%
September
258.10
255.78
-0.9%
October
257.55
255.65
-0.7%
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.