Market News

Friday midday cash livestock prices

Cattle country is slow to start on Friday with only a few bids on the table in Kansas at 146.00. Asking prices are around 150.00 in the South and 243.00 in the North. A very light trade was reported in Nebraska Thursday with a regional buyer paying 241.00, while a major paid 150.00 for a handful of cattle, the rest of cattle country was quiet.

Boxed beef cutout values are lower with the choice down 2.73 at 222.27, and select 1.34 lower at 212.96.

Feeder cattle receipts at Missouri Auctions this week totaled 27,986 head. Compared to last week, steer calves sold steady to 2.00 lower and heifer calves steady to 2.00 higher. A light test of true yearlings sold mostly steady, Calf markets around the state are very uneven with local auctions having instances ranging from 15.00 lower to 10.00 higher. The offering was considered moderate, but numbers were much less than the previous week. Feeder steers, medium and large 1 averaging 524 pounds brought 223.15 per hundredweight. 520 pound heifers traded at 199.72.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade are not reported due to confidentiality. In the West the market is .49 lower at 119.67 weighted average on a carcass basis, the East is 1.35 lower at 119.01. Hogs in the Midwest are steady to 1.00 lower live in a light test from 83.00 to 98.00.

The pork carcass cutout value is up .65 FOB plant at 125.12 on a negotiated basis.

While early spring hog numbers seem fully adequate, severe shortages linked to PEDv death losses could still be waiting in the wings, especially given ideas that the disease took its worse toll during the winter quarter. Starting in late May or early June, slaughter totals could fall sharply as the December-March pig crop reaches full maturity,