Cattle futures closed mainly higher Friday, supported by firm negotiated cash fed cattle prices.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of $1.06 higher. Feeder Cattle futures closed narrowly mixed, from an average of $1.54 higher.
Week to week on Friday, Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $1.95 higher. Live Cattle futures closed an average of 64¢ higher, except for an average of 67¢ lower in the front three contracts.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade was mostly inactive on moderate demand through Friday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
For the week, FOB live prices are steady to $1 higher in Kansas at $229/cwt., $2 higher in Nebraska at $230, and $1 higher in the western Corn Belt at $229.
Dressed delivered prices were steady to $2 lower in Nebraska at $356. Dressed delivered prices in the western Corn Belt the previous week were $356-$358.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $3.41 lower Friday afternoon at $351.21/cwt. Select was $1.95 lower at $343.80.
Estimated total cattle slaughter for the holiday-shortened week of 429,000 head was 158,000 head fewer than the previous week and 4,000 head fewer than the same week last year. Year-to-date estimated total cattle slaughter of 28.9 million head was 2.1. million head fewer (-6.8%) than the same time last year. Estimated year-to-date beef production of 25.3 billion pounds was 1.1 billion pounds less (-4.0%).
Grain and Soybean futures were mixed on Friday.
Corn futures closed fractionally lower to 1¢ lower in the front three contracts and then mostly fractionally higher.
KC HRW Wheat futures closedmostly unchanged to fractionally higher.
Soybean futures closed mostly 2¢ to 4¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial closed little changed on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 20 points. The S&P 500 closed 2 points lower, and the NASDAQ closed 20 points lower.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed $1.41 to $1.61 lower through the front six contracts.
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Beef packing capacity utilization will continue to be less than historical norms, despite Tyson closing its plant at Lexington, Neb., and halving production at its Amarillo, Texas facility, according to Terrain’s recent outlook for the first quarter of 2026.
Terrain estimates the Tyson transitions will eventually reduce U.S. slaughter capacity by about 6.6%.
“However, slaughter plant capacity utilization is still nearly 6% behind historical norms, as the number of cattle is still well short of filling available slaughter capacity,” explains Dave Weaber, Terrain senior animal protein analyst. “I expect utilization to decline by about 2% during 2026 when two new plants in Nebraska and Missouri complete their startups. A proposed plant in the Panhandle of Texas that would handle 6,000 head per day has the potential to lower utilization rates back to early-2025 levels if completed. Even without additional future slaughter capacity, utilization rates will remain low; fed cattle numbers are expected to decline during the next two to three years because of cow-calf producers’ beef cow herd expansion efforts.”
In the meantime, Weaber says reduced fed slaughter packing capacity will help the remaining plants run more volume, improving efficiency by spreading fixed and semi-variable costs across more head and pounds of beef. He explains increased operational efficiency will likely encourage plants to fill available capacity and compete more for the available cattle.
“Even with a 2% shift in leverage (fed cattle price to comprehensive cutout) to the packers’ favor, I expect the choice cutout to average between $375/cwt. and $385/cwt., and fed cattle prices to average between $234/cwt. and $238/cwt. in the first quarter,” Weaber says.