Cattle futures firmed and clawed back a little ground without much conviction on Tuesday after being hammered by panic selling in the previous session, tied to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in dairy cows linked to a rare case in humans.
Live Cattle closed an average of $1.02 higher (50¢ to $1.70 higher).
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $2.43 higher ($1.35 to $3.07 higher).
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from mostly inactive on light demand to a standstill through Tuesday afternoon, with too few transactions to trend, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, FOB live prices were $186/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle, $185-$186 in Kansas, $189-$190 in Nebraska and $188-$190 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed delivered prices were $299-$302 in Nebraska and $299-$300 in the western Corn Belt.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.58 lower Tuesday afternoon at $304.16/cwt. Select was $2.80 lower at $298.99/cwt.
Corn futures closed 4¢ to 9¢ lower through Sep ’25 and then fractionally lower to 2¢ lower.
KC HRW Wheat futures closed 9¢ to 13¢ lower through May ’25. and then 6¢ to 7¢ lower.
Soybean futures closed 4¢ to 11¢ lower through Jan ’25.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed lower Tuesday amid rising treasury yields.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 396 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 37 points lower. The NASDAQ was down 156 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed $1.03 to $1.44 higher through the front six contracts.
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U.S. beef and pork exports contribute significant value to the value of domestic corn and soybeans, according to an independent study conducted by The Juday Group and released by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).
Nationally, U.S. pork and beef exports contributed an estimated total economic impact of 14.6% per bushel to the value of corn and 13.9% per bushel to soybeans in 2023, according to the study.
More specifically, beef and pork exports contributed an estimated 87¢ of bushel value at an average price of $5.95 per bushel. They accounted for 512.7 million bushels of U.S. corn usage, which equated to a market value of $3.05 billion (at an average 2023 corn price of $5.95 per bushel).
Pork exports accounted for 96.8 million bushels of U.S. soybean usage, which equated to a market value of $1.36 billion (at an average price of $14.07 per bushel). They contributed an estimated $1.95 per bushel, at an average price of $14.07 per bushel.
The quality of U.S. corn and soybeans as feed inputs is a key differentiator for U.S. red meat in international markets, says USMEF Chair Randy Spronk, a pork and grain producer from Edgerton, Minn. “Our production practices and the quality of our feed inputs is an important part of the story that USMEF promotes to international customers. How we raise our soybeans, how we raise our corn, how we process our feed and the efficiencies we strive for ‒ those are sustainable practices that help differentiate us from other beef and pork exporters.”