Cattle futures closed mainly higher Friday, helped along by the week’s stronger negotiated cash fed cattle prices and wholesale beef values.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 64¢ higher (17¢ to $1.40 higher), except for an average of 15¢ lower in two contracts.
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $2.89 higher.
Week to week on Friday, Live Cattle futures closed an average of $1.45 lower, except for an average of 26¢ higher in the back two contracts. During the same period, Feeder Cattle futures were an average of $3.03 lower, except for an average of $2.54 higher in the front two contracts.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from light on moderate demand in Nebraska to mostly inactive on light demand elsewhere through Friday afternoon, according to the agricultural Marketing Service.
For the week, FOB live prices were $2 higher in Kansas at $235/cwt., $2-$3 higher in Nebraska at $235 and steady to $4 higher in the western Corn Belt at $235-$236. Dressed delivered prices were $5-$10 higher in Nebraska at $370 and $10 higher in the western Corn Belt at $370-$380.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 50¢ higher Friday afternoon at $364.36/cwt. Select was $2.59 higher at $352.37. Week to week on Friday, Choice was $2.98 higher and Select was $6.14 higher.
Estimated total cattle slaughter last week of 509,000 head was 3,000 head fewer than the previous week and 28,000 head fewer than the same week last year. Year-to-date estimated total cattle slaughter of 16.4 million head was 1.5 million head fewer (-8.1%) than the same time a year earlier. Estimated year-to-date beef production of 14.6 billion pounds was 865.4 million pounds less (-5.6%) than the same time last year.
Grain and Soybean futures were mixed again on Friday with likely positioning ahead of this week’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.
Corn futures were unchanged to fractionally higher through Jly ’27 and then fractionally lower to 1¢ lower. Soybean futures closed mostly fractionally lower to 1¢ lower. Kansas City HRW Wheat closed 10¢ to 14¢ higher through Jly ’27 and then 7¢ to 9¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices were higher Friday with support apparently including a more negative labor outlook than expected, which bolstered investor hopes it would keep the Fed from raising interest rates.
Non-farm payroll employment declined by 23,000 in July with unemployment rate little changed at 4.1%, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls in July were little changed at $37.62. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 3.2%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 152 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 47 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 342 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) 89¢ to $1.05 higher through the front six contracts.
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The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry failed to advance the Farm Bill last week, yet managed to approve an amendment, which could pave the way to making Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) mandatory once again. You might recall that COOL became mandatory in 2013 until Congress repealed the law in 2016 because the World Trade Organization (WTO) found it to be a violation of U.S. WTO obligations. Never mind that USDA is currently actively promoting increased participation in the voluntary Product of USA labeling program.
Earlier this month, the Meat Institute released a new economic analysis by Decision Innovation Solutions, which finds that reinstating mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for beef and pork would impose more than $1 billion annually in added costs across the U.S. meat supply chain, increasing expenses for livestock producers, meat processors, retailers, and consumers while providing little evidence of increased consumer demand for labeled products.
More specifically, according to the study, reinstating mandatory COOL would cost the beef and pork industries approximately $1.02 billion in the first year alone, including $721 million for beef and $296 million for pork. Most of these expenses would be recurring operational costs rather than one-time investments.
Over time, those costs would continue to grow, reaching an estimated $4.8 billion over five years and $10.1 billion over 10 years.
The study concludes that compliance costs would largely be passed through the supply chain and reflected in higher food prices. Researchers estimate consumers would pay approximately $835 million more annually for beef purchases and $284 million more annually for pork purchases.