Market News

Cattle and hog futures close higher

There are only a few scattered bids on the table in feedlot country on Thursday at 101.00 live in Kansas and Nebraska on a live basis, and 160.00 in Nebraska dressed. Asking prices are around 106.00 live, and 165.00 dressed. It looks like significant trade volume will be delayed until sometime on Friday. The Thursday cattle slaughter is estimated at 116,000 head, 5,000 more than last week, and 9,000 greater than last year.

The boxed beef cutout values were higher on choice and lower on select on light to moderate demand and offerings. Choice beef 185.59 up 1.04, select 1.78 lower at 168.67.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled .40 to 1.02 higher as firm gains once again redeveloped in the nearby contracts as December pushed above 194.00 per hundredweight in light trade. Even though nearby contracts held gains at near $1.00 through much of the session, the overall market status has not changed. Nearby contracts are still nearly 1.00 per hundredweight under resistance levels, and the lack of activity appeared to be unable to test those levels.

Feeder cattle ended the session .25 to .82 higher as traders focused on the strong renewed buyer support that developed in the live cattle futures market. Commercial support was seen across the entire feeder cattle market, with the most aggressive action in the 2017 contracts.

The Springfield, Missouri Livestock Marketing center had receipts of 1,873 cattle on Wednesday. Compared to last week, steer calves were 2.00 to 3.00 lower, heifer calves 4.00 to 6.00 lower, yearling steers 3.00 to 5.00 lower, yearling heifers steady to 3.00 lower. The demand and supply was moderate. Feeder steers medium and large 1 averaging 572 pounds brought 124.48 per hundredweight. 572 pound heifers traded at 110.78.

Lean hogs settled .12 to .82 higher as they bounced off session lows as traders pushed front month December contracts below 46.00 per hundredweight for a limited amount of time through the morning. But the development of firming pork values in the morning cutout report and narrow gains in the Iowa cash hog report helped to draw additional buyer interest back into the market, especially in the nearby contracts.

Barrows and gilts in the Iowa/Minnesota direct trade are .21 higher at 41.57 weighted average on a carcass basis, the West is up. 16 at 41.50, and nationally the hog market is .01 higher at 41.40. The Missouri direct base carcass meat price closed steady to 1.00 lower from 36.00 to 37.00. Midwest hogs on a live basis were steady to 1.00 lower from 22.00 to 29.00.

The pork carcass cutout value closed 1.09 higher at 74.91 FOB plant. The hams were $6.41 higher.

Iowa barrows and gilts last week averaged 280.8 pounds, .1 pound lighter than the previous week, and 3.5 pounds smaller than 2015.

The Thursday hogs slaughter was estimated at 443,000 head, 1,000 more than last week, and 7,000 greater than last year.