Feedlot country was very quiet on Wednesday afternoon with asking prices firming up a bit due to futures recovery. There was some light trade reported in Nebraska and Iowa at 152.00 on a dressed basis. Most feedlot managers appeared to be holding for more money with asking prices around 95.00 to 96.00 in the South and 155.00 to 156.00 in the North. The kill totaled 130,000 head, the same as last week, but 1,000 below last year. Note that aggressive chain speed continues to reflect extraordinary processing margins. Boxed beef cutout values ended weak to lower on moderate demand and moderate to heavy offerings. Choice boxed beef was down .68 at 166.14, and select is 1.37 lower at 159.35.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 67 to 85 points higher with most of the buying having very little to do with fundamental market change, and was associated with the renewed confidence in the outside markets. Perception of the European debt issue seems to be much better on Wednesday, which helped to support the market and give increased motivation to buyers. A bigger factor in Wednesday’s rally may be traders positioning ahead of the long weekend and the end of the month. June settled .77 higher at 90.80, and August was .85 higher at 89.92.
Feeder cattle ended 35 to 102 points higher on spillover support from the live pit and expectations that the tone of the market could improve significantly from earlier in the week and could keep buyers active through Friday. May feeders settled .47 higher at 108.47 and August was up 1.02 at 108.30.
Feeder cattle receipts at the Ozarks Regional Stockyards at West Plains, MO totaled 2112 head on Tuesday. Compared to last week, steers and heifers trended 2.00 to 5.00 lower with some middle weight heifer calves 6.00 to 7.00 lower. Feeder steers medium and large 1 weighing 500 to 600 pounds brought 116.00 to 125.00, 5 to 6 weight heifers at 107.00 to 116.00.
Iowa/Minnesota barrows and gilts closed 1.20 lower at 77.12, weighted average on a carcass basis, the West was down 1.32 at 77.18, and the East closed 2.46 lower at 76.40. The Missouri direct base carcass meat price closed 1.00 to 2.00 lower at 74.00.Hog slaughter on Wednesday was estimated at 395,000 head, 5,000 less than a week ago and 35,000 under last year. Iowa hog weights last week at 270.8 pounds increased by 0.5 pounds from the previous week, and were 2.6 pounds heavier than last year, leading to questions of how current feeding floors are.
Lean hogs settled 50 to 135 points higher following the rebound in the outside markets. Very little change was noted in the fundamentals but traders were directed by the mood of the outside markets which created new optimism in the lean pit. Fall and winter contracts were higher on the rally in corn futures. June was .50 higher at 81.65, and July was up .60 at 82.60. Pork trading was slow, with light demand and light to moderate offerings. Pork carcass cutout value was .10 lower at 87.45.
Most pork belly contracts were untraded on Wednesday as there was a renewed push to enter the outside commodity and stock markets. July was down .05 at 102.60.
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