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Cattle buyer inquiry was light

Cattle buyer inquiry remained light on Wednesday afternoon with DTN reporting just a few bids in Kansas at 119.00, and Nebraska at 192.00. Asking prices are not well defined, but some producers have priced ready cattle around 125.00 in the South, and 200.00 to 205.00 in the North. Buying interest is not expected to increase until sometime on Thursday or Friday. The kill totaled 111,000 head, 2,000 below last week, but 1,000 more than last year.

Boxed beef cutout values were steady on choice and sharply higher on select on light to moderate demand and heavy offerings. Choice beef was up .25 at 209.08, select was 2.14 higher at 196.93.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled 60 to 90 points lower. The strong support seen in some feeder cattle contracts and the bounce higher in beef values was not enough to overcome the widespread outside market losses, and concern that long term buyer support may be hard to sustain across the live cattle complex.

Feeder cattle regained most of the losses seen in the early trade and settled 72 points higher to 57 lower. The aggressive fellow through pressure in the grain market created some support to feeder cattle futures, although the lack of support seen in live cattle markets worked to erode a portion of the buying activity.

Feeder cattle receipts at the Ozarks Regional Stockyards at West Plains, Missouri totaled 2,990 head on Tuesday. Compared to last week, feeder steers traded 3.00 to 6.00 higher. Heifer calves were steady to 5.00 higher with too few yearlings last week for an adequate comparison, however undertones were higher. Demand was very good on a moderate supply which included several multi-pot load drafts of yearlings. Feeder steers medium and large 1 averaging 731 pounds brought 143.84 per hundredweight. Feeder heifers weighing 892 pounds averaged 125.91.

Sharp losses of up to 262 points in the August and October lean hog contracts were seen on Wednesday with a lack of market fundamentals as well as further technical pressure. The market remained lower through the session based on a lack of volume in the complex, and outside market pressure which limited overall buyer interest.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade closed .92 lower at 78.47 weighted average on a carcass basis, the west was down .75 at 78.51, and nationally the market was .11 lower at 77.76. Missouri direct base carcass meat price was steady to 1.00 higher from 69.00 to 75.00. Midwest hogs on a live basis closed steady to 1.00 higher from 47.00 to 60.00.

The pork carcass cutout value was up .81 at 90.07 FOB plant.

While this week’s hog slaughter will naturally be cut back thanks to the Fourth of July break, many expect that weekly kills through the balance of July will be quite ample, probably not falling below 2.1 million to 2.15 million head.

The Wednesday hog kill was estimated by USDA at 434,000 head, 8,000 more than last week, and 17,000 greater than last year.

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