Negotiated cash fed cattle trade jumped out to an early and positive start Tuesday with prices $1 higher in the Southern Plains at $140/cwt. on moderate trade and demand, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Elsewhere, trade ranged from a standstill to mostly inactive on very light demand with too few transactions to trend.
Last week, live prices were at $140-$142 in the Northern Plains and at $142-$143 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed prices were $225-$227 in Nebraska and $226 in the western Corn Belt.
Choice Boxed beef cutout value was $1.15 lower Tuesday afternoon at $269.93/cwt. Select was 25¢ lower at $259.21.
Stronger cash fed cattle prices helped Live Cattle futures close an average of 49¢ higher, except for 15¢ lower in the back two contracts.
Softer front-month Corn futures helped give Feeder Cattle a reprieve, closing an average of 69¢ higher, except for 2¢ land 5¢ lower in two contracts.
Corn futures closed 1¢ to 9¢ lower through new-crop contracts and then 1¢ to 5¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed mixed; fractionally lower to 1¢ higher through Nov ’22 and then mostly 7¢ to 9¢ higher.
******************************
Major U.S. financial indices rallied Tuesday on mainly positive quarterly corporate earnings reports, a day of lower energy prices and positive news on the housing front.
Privately‐owned housing units authorized by building permits in March were 1.87 million, which was 0.4% more than the previous month and 6.7% more than the previous year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Privately‐owned housing starts in March were 1.79 million, which was 0.3% more than the previous month and 3.9% more than the previous year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 499 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 70 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 287 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME closed $4.58 to $5.65 lower through the front six contracts.
******************************
“Beef heifer retention was lower coming into 2022, which suggests continued contraction in beef cow numbers. It is still early in the year, but beef cow slaughter through the end of March points to another year of heavy culling,” says Kenny Burdine, Extension livestock economist at the University of Kentucky. “The combination of dry weather and strong cull cow prices are likely to keep cows moving and encourage producers to pull the trigger a little sooner on those cows as they approach the end of their productive lives. This is definitely something to watch as we move through the current year, and it is hard to imagine that we won’t be discussing another decrease in beef cow numbers at the start of 2023.”
Burdine provides a perspective in the latest Cattle Market Notes Weekly. Year to date, through the end of March, he explains beef cow slaughter is 17% more than last year. Even if you adjust for paltry slaughter numbers during last year’s February ice storm, he notes beef cow slaughter is still more than 14% higher year over year.