USA: Cattle market review for week 43 from October 30, 2023

Traders are keeping an eye on Wall Street as weakness in stocks and worries about the economy could curb consumer demand for expensive beef , analysts say. Stocks closed lower on signs of economic strength that could prompt the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates at restrictive levels longer than expected.

December live cattle contracts on the CME fell 0.100 cent to 179.325 cents per pound, while February live cattle contracts fell 1.100 cents to 180.400 cents per pound. January feeder cattle futures fell 1.475 cents to 235.075 cents a pound.

“I would chalk it up to the stock market,” said Rich Nelson, chief strategist at agricultural brokerage Allendale.

Live and feeder cattle futures hit their lowest levels since June on Monday and Tuesday after the U.S. government said producers placed more cattle into U.S. feedlots than expected in September.

The large placements surprised some analysts as the U.S. cattle herd fell to its lowest level in decades after drought pushed up feed prices.

“In the first and second quarters of next year, the cattle herd will be a little higher than we expected,” Nelson said.

Tight cattle supplies and high beef prices have reduced U.S. beef exports , although sales rose last week. Weekly U.S. beef EXPORT sales totaled 17,400 metric tons in 2023, up 72% from the previous four-week average, according to the USDA.

WEEKLY COST OF CUTTINGS CAT.CHOICE

CATTLE SALES

Sale of livestock, heads

Average weight

Week 42

Week 43

Weekly growth,%

Week 42

Week 43

Weekly growth,%

Bulls (live weight)

35 549

25 838

-27.3%

1 464

1,518

3.7%

Heifers (live weight)

13,941

6,773

-51.4%

1 320

1 332

0.9%

Steers (slaughter weight)

10 317

7,922

-23.2%

978

961

-1.7%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

1 231

3 510

185.1%

830

834

0.5%

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF CALLS

BEEF PRODUCTION

Index

Week 43

Previous week

A year ago

Weekly growth,%

Growth over the year, %

Slaughter volume

636,000

638,000

667,000

-0.3%

-4.6%

Live weight

1 373

1 370

1 382

0.2%

-0.7%

Slaughter weight

831

829

835

0.2%

-0.5%

Beef production (million pounds)

527.0

527.8

555.8

-0.2%

-5.2%

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 42

Week 43

Weekly growth,%

October

184.28

184.00

-0.1%

December

184.63

182.23

-1.3%

February

187.73

182.95

-2.5%

Feeder cattle futures

November

242.23

236.90

-2.2%

January

237.18

235.70

-0.6%

March

239.60

238.58

-0.4%

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.