USA: Cattle market review for week 4 from January 29, 2024

Market-ready cattle sold for $174 to $175 per hundredweight in the Texas and Kansas cash markets, up about $ 1 from last week, traders said, reflecting demand from MEAT processors after the winter weather and holidays have slowed the pace of slaughter in recent weeks.

The pace picked up last week, with 126,000 cattle sent to slaughter on Thursday , higher than a week and a year ago.

U.S. beef EXPORT sales totaled 22,400 metric tons for the week ended Jan. 18, USDA data showed, the highest weekly total in 11 months.

However, U.S. wholesale beef prices fell midweek after rising through much of January, a potentially bullish signal for cattle futures . “The beef price rally appears to have fizzled out, in part because slaughter rates have returned to normal. So, more product is coming to market,” said Doug Houghton, an analyst at Brock Associates.

WEEKLY COST OF CUTTINGS CAT.CHOICE

CATTLE SALES

Sale of livestock, heads

Average weight

Week 3

Week 4

Weekly growth,%

Week 3

Week 4

Weekly growth,%

Bulls (live weight)

365

28 825

7797.3%

1,582

1 493

-5.6%

Heifers (live weight)

0

14 313

0

1 314

Steers (slaughter weight)

128

7 371

5658.6%

945

962

1.8%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

0

1,514

0

844

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF CALLS

BEEF PRODUCTION

Index

Week 4

Previous week

A year ago

Weekly growth,%

Growth over the year, %

Slaughter volume

618,000

617,000

653,000

0.2%

-5.4%

Live weight

1 406

1 408

1 383

-0.1%

1.7%

Slaughter weight

847

851

827

-0.5%

2.4%

Beef production (million pounds)

522.5

523.8

538.8

-0.2%

-3.0%

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 3

Week 4

Weekly growth,%

February

174.38

178.45

2.3%

April

177.38

181.68

2.4%

June

174.33

178.85

2.6%

Feeder cattle futures

January

230.10

239.70

4.2%

March

231.95

245.60

5.9%

April

237.48

251.18

5.8%

You can find out more about the state of the cattle market in the usa (livestock prices, the 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 for free as part of a subscription to monthly meat analytics Russian markets.