Cattle futures ran out of steam Wednesday as traders were apparently waiting for more cash direction.
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 24¢ lower.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 34¢ lower.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from mostly inactive on very light demand to mostly a standstill through Wednesday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, live prices were at $153-$155/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle, $155-$156 in Kansas, $156-$158 in Nebraska and $156 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed prices were $246-$247.
Choice Boxed beef cutout value was $4.88 lower Wednesday afternoon at $250.07/cwt. Select was $1.23 higher at $226.69/cwt.
Corn futures closed 2¢ to 4¢ lower through Jly ‘23 and then mostly fractionally mixed.
Soybean futures closed narrowly mixed, mostly 1¢ lower to 1¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed lower Wednesday, pressured by hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, taking wind from the sails of those who had hoped the central bank would begin taking a softer monetary stance.
“The Committee anticipates that ongoing increases in the target range will be appropriate in order to attain a stance of monetary policy that is sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2% over time,” according to an FOMC statement. Although less than recent increases, the Fed raised the target range for the federal funds rate another half-point to 4.25% to 4.50%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 142 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 24 points lower. The NASDAQ was down 85 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed $1.37 to $1.89 higher through the front six contracts.
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Last year, 26% of U.S. beef production came from small family operations and 57% came from mid-size and large-scale family operations, according to the 2022 edition of America’s Farms and Ranches at a Glance.
Most U.S. operations are small family farms (89%) that operate on nearly 50% of U.S. agricultural land and account for 18% of the total value of production. Large-scale family farms accounted for 46% of the total value of production and 27% of agricultural land in 2021. Mid-size family farms accounted for 18% of agricultural land and 18% of the total value of production.
Small family farms had gross cash farm income of less than $350,000 for the year. For mid-size operations, the range of gross cash farm income was $350,000 to $999,999. It was $1 million or more for large-scale family operations.