Recently stronger wholesale beef prices helped Cattle futures firm Tuesday, despite another day of higher Corn futures.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 71¢ higher (3¢ higher at the back to $1.22 higher toward the front).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 17¢ higher except for unchanged in Jan.
Corn futures closed mostly 12¢ to 14¢ higher through new-crop contracts and then 16¢ to 20¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed mostly 9¢ to 29¢ higher.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade was limited on light demand in the western Corn Belt through Tuesday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service. A few live sales traded at $141/cwt. Trading was at a standstill in the Southern Plains and Nebraska.
Last week, live prices were $135 in the Southern Plains, $139-$140 in Nebraska and $140-$141 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed prices were $222.
Choice Boxed beef cutout value was $1.84 higher Tuesday afternoon at $271.42/cwt. Select was $1.53 lower at $249.56
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Major U.S. financial indices rallied on Tuesday even though retail giant Target announced markdowns due to surplus inventories, which is typically bearish news.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 264 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 39 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 114 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME were 91¢ to $1.66 higher through the front six contracts with spot Jly closing at $119.41.
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The Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer declined 22 points month over month in May to 99, the lowest level since April 2020.
The Index of Current Conditions dipped 26 points to a reading of 94 and the Index of Future Expectations fell 21 points to a reading of 101.
Despite strong commodity prices, this month’s weakness in producers’ sentiment appears to be driven by the rapid rise in production costs and uncertainty about where input prices are headed,” says James Mintert, the barometer’s principal investigator and director of Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture. “That combination is leaving producers very concerned about their farms’ financial performance.”
Higher input costs remain a top concern for producers with 44% of those surveyed choosing it as the biggest concern facing their farming operation in the coming year. Additionally, 57% of producers said they expect a 30% or more rise in prices paid for farm inputs in 2022 compared to prices paid last year.
The percentage of producers who expect their farm’s financial performance to worsen in 2022 compared to last year rose from 29% in April to 38% in May.
The Ag Economy Barometer is calculated each month from 400 U.S. agricultural producers’ responses to a telephone survey. This month’s survey was conducted between May 16-20.