Market News

Midday cash livestock markets

Direct cash cattle trade is quiet.  Both bids and asking prices are not well defined and buyers and sellers are looking to the board for some indication of price direction.  There are reports that showlists in Kansas and Texas may start out priced around $110.  Look for significant trade volume to be delayed until the second half of the week.

At the close, at the Joplin Regional Stockyard, receipts were up on the week and the year.  Steer and heifer calves were steady to mostly $3 to $5 lower, yearlings were steady to $3 lower.  The USDA says demand was moderate and supply was heavy.  The dry conditions continue to move cattle out of the area.  Feeder supply included 57 percent steers and 47 percent of the offering was over 600 pounds.  Medium and Large 1 feeder steers 500 to 600 pounds brought $155 to $177.50 and feeder steers 800 to 900 pounds brought $133 to $143.  Medium and Large 1 feeder heifers 500 to 600 pounds brought $137 to $149 and feeder heifers 800 to 900 pounds brought $117 to $122.50.

Boxed beef cutout values are mixed at midday on light box movement.  Choice down $.23 at $217.46 and Select is up $.21 at $202.10.  The Choice/Select spread is $15.36.

Cash hogs opened lower.  It has been much of the same this week.  Narrowing processing margins have buyers working hard to move more numbers at lower costs.  Chain speed has slowed – partially because of the reduction of market-ready numbers and partially because of those weaker packer margins.  And the market remains nervous with the large hog supply and continued negative trade rhetoric.  Any disruption to demand would be costly to US pork producers.  Barrows and gilts at the Western Corn Belt opened $.65 lower with a range of $71 to $78.50 for a weighted average of $77.14; the National Daily Direct opened $.98 lower with a range of $71 to $78.42 for a weighted average of $78.42; the Iowa/Southern Minnesota and the Eastern Corn Belt were not reported due to confidentiality.

Butcher hogs at the Zumbrota, Minnesota market are $1 lower at $53 and the markets in Wisconsin and Iowa are steady at $60.  At the Interior Missouri Direct, receipts are up on the week and down on the year.  Barrows and gilts are steady at $69 to $70 on light to moderate supply and demand.  Sows are steady at $34 to $44.  At Illinois, slaughter sow receipts are up on the week and the year.  Sow prices are $1 lower at $34 to $48 with moderate demand for moderate to heavy offerings.  Barrows and gilts are $2 lower at $47 to $56 with moderate demand for moderate offerings.

Pork cutout values are higher at the midday – up $.93 at $87.37.  The primals are mostly higher led by the more than $5 jump in the ribs and strong moves up in the belly and the loin.