Market News

Cattle showlists are smaller

The country was quiet on Monday afternoon with bids and asking prices not well defined, although a few showlists have been priced around 150.00 in the South and 232.00 plus in the North. The new offering appears to be generally smaller with only Colorado showing a few more ready steers and heifers. The kill totaled 109,000 head, even with last week, but not comparable to last year’s holiday slaughter.

Boxed beef cutout values were lower on light demand and light to moderate offerings. Choice beef was .98 lower at 242.24, and select was down .91 at 232.04.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled unchanged to 122 points lower. Moderate pressure held throughout the complex despite the strong push higher in feeder cattle earlier in the session. Traders were focused on the lack of support in beef values as well as softness in last week’s cash cattle trade. Each day as the Labor Day weekend gets closer, the more concerns about lackluster beef demand over the holidays is affecting the entire live cattle market. October was .77 lower at 143.20, and December was down .62 at 145.42.

Feeder cattle ended the session 67 to 222 points lower. Feeder futures were mired in volatility once again with triple digit gains early met by resistance especially in the deferred contracts. The inability to draw any significant support into the live cattle futures sparked additional late session uncertainty. Wide market shifts were seen in the complex. September settled .57 lower at 201.82, and October was down 1.05 at 197.87.

Feeder cattle receipts at the Joplin, Missouri Regional stockyards on Monday totaled 5,000 head. Compared to last week, steers and heifers are steady to firm. Demand is moderate to good and the supply is moderate today. Feeder steers medium and large 1 weighing 500 to 600 pounds traded at 230.00t o 244.00 per hundredweight. 5 to 6 weight heifers brought 217.00 to 228.00.

Lean hogs settled 35 to 160 points higher’ Futures were able to draw additional strong buyer support back into the futures market. The focus on collecting even additional buyer support as lean futures battled back from midmonth losses seemed to help to spark some consistency in the higher prices are still developing camp. October settled 1.60 higher at 68.02 and December was up 1.57 at 63.12.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed .56 lower, the West was up .01 with both at 71.56 weighted average on a carcass basis. Nationally the hog market was down .50 at 70.88. Missouri direct base carcass meat price was 1.00 to 3.00 lower from 64.00 to 66.00. Midwest hogs on a live basis closed steady with an instance of 1.00 2.00 lower from 45.00 to 58.00.

The pork carcass cutout value was 1.31 higher at 85.84.

For the week ending August 15, hog dressed weights averaged 209 pounds, unchanged from the previous week and 4 pounds less than year-ago. Over the past six weeks hog dressed weights have averaged 209.7 pounds, 3.3 pounds lighter than the same six weeks in 2014, down 1.6%.

Hog slaughter was estimated at 429,000 head, 4,000 less than last week, no comparison to the holiday last year.