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Cattle and hog futures end the week in positive territory

Cattle country was dead quiet on Friday afternoon with business done for the week. Show lists are expected to remain quite manageable at least through the end of the month that is good news for producers, but potentially bad news for packers, especially if they continue to have difficulty selling beef higher. Note how they moved to slow chain speed this week in order to improve leverage with retailers. Unfortunately, beef buyers have not yet been convinced to increase their shopping. The weekly cattle kill at 650,000 head is 16,000 less than last week, and down 12,000 from last year.

Boxed beef cutout values were lower on light to moderate demand and moderate to heavy offerings. Choice boxed beef was down 1.00 at 185.00; select was 1.31 lower at 166.98.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 20 to 85 points higher on technical buying. The market was supported by reports of sharply higher beef exports in August and for the year so far. The lower dollar, the approval of the trade agreement by congress and higher commodity and equity markets also were supportive. October settled .60 higher at 121.65, and December was up .35 at 123.20.

Feeder cattle ended the session 75 to 120 points higher supported by the higher live futures and stronger outside markets. October was up 1.20 at 139.90, and November was .97 higher at 144.42.

Feeder cattle receipts at Missouri auctions totaled 28,128 head. Feeder steers and heifers sold steady to 3.00 higher, with several instances 3.00 to 7.00 higher on light feather weight calves less than 450 pounds. There were spots of weakness and discounts being applied mostly on heavy weight calves as buyers in the state generally remain quite picky about condition and health of cattle. Feeder steers medium and large 1 averaging 522 pounds traded at an average of 144.04 per hundredweight. 522 pound heifers brought 131.59.

Lean hogs settled 37 to 105 points higher as aggressive moves were seen in the stock and most other outside markets. The expectation that additional support is likely to develop in export demand through the end of the year helped to draw traders into the market late in the week. Sharply higher pork values on Thursday lent additional support to the market. October settled .57 higher at 93.57, and December was up 2.05 at 90.07.

The hog market was moderate to active with moderate to good demand. Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed .02 lower at 90.86 on a carcass basis, the West was down .23 at 90.42, and the East was .83 higher at 92.39. Missouri direct base carcass meat price closed steady at 86.00 Terminal hogs were steady to 1.00 lower from 59.00 to 62.00.

Pork trading was slow to moderate with light to moderate demand and offerings. Pork carcass cutout value was up 1.03 at 98.71.

The weekly hog slaughter was estimated at 2,318,000 head, 22,000 less than last week, but 78,000 more than last year.

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