Cattle buyers and sellers are busy taking inventory of cattle for this week’s show lists. Bids and asking prices have not been established so far today. Show lists should be about steady with last week, but packer inquiry could be somewhat slower since buyers will be buying for a smaller slaughter schedule next week due to the Labor Day holiday.

Boxed beef cutout values were higher at midday with the choice up .11 at 186.41 and the select was .25 higher at 179.46.

Ericson Spalding Livestock Auction at Ericson, NE had cattle receipts of 2300 head on Friday. There were a limited number of offerings from two weeks ago for a price comparison. 800 pound steers traded 5.00 lower and 900 pound steers traded 7.00 lower. There were no comparable offerings for heifer comparison. There were not many buyers in the seats with moderate to good demand for all offerings and high internet activity. Feeder steers medium and large 1; 596 head averaging 880 pounds traded at 129.49 per hundredweight. 120 heifers weighing 884 brought 124.22.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade were not reported due to confidentiality. The West is down .63 at 91.48, and the East was 3.36 lower at 93.08 weighted averages on a carcass basis. National barrows and gilts are 2.34 lower at 93.08. Missouri direct base carcass meat price is steady to 1.00 lower from 91.00 to 93.00. Terminal hogs are steady with an instance of 2.00 lower from 60.00 to 67.00 on the live basis.

The hog kill totaled 2.114 million head last week, up 3.3% from the previous week, but down 0.3% from last year. Barrow and gilt slaughter is running 1.5% under the level implied by the June hogs and pigs report.