Negotiated cash fed cattle trade was slow to moderate on light to moderate demand in the Southern Plains through Friday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service. Live sales were mostly $2 higher in the Texas Panhandle at $162/cwt. and $1-$2 higher in Kansas at $162.
Elsewhere, trade was slow on light to moderate demand with too few transactions to trend.
For the week, live sales were steady to $3 higher in Nebraska at $160 and $2 higher in the western Corn Belt at $162. Dressed prices in both regions were $3 higher at $257.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.49 higher Friday afternoon at $281.04/cwt. Select was $3.25 higher at $265.89/cwt.
Estimated total cattle slaughter last week of 627,000 head was 3,000 head fewer than the previous week and 43,000 head fewer than the same week last year. Estimated year-to-date cattle slaughter of 4.4. million head was 86,000 head less (-1.9%). Estimated year to date beef production of 3.6 billion lbs. was 141 million pounds less (-3.7%).
Stronger cash fed cattle prices helped Live Cattle futures gain Friday.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 38¢ higher.
Feeder Cattle futures closed narrowly mixed, from an average of 19¢ lower to an average of 15¢ higher.
Corn futures closed mostly 2¢ higher through Jly ‘24 and then mainly unchanged to 1¢ lower.
KC HRW Wheat closed mostly 5¢ to 8¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed mostly 1¢ to 2¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices managed to close mixed Friday after a volatile session pressured by the week’s reports of still-strong inflation and high bond yield rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 129 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 11 points lower. The NASDAQ was down 68 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed $2.05 to $2.20 lower through the front six contracts.
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Total land in farms continued to decrease last year, down 1.9 million acres from the previous year at 893.4 million acres, according to USDA’s latest Farms and Land in Farms Summary.
One way USDA looks at land in farms is relative to categories of sales class. Producers in the sales class of $100,000 to $249,000 accounted for most of the decrease in land in farms last year — 1.62 million acres.
The average farm size for 2022 was 446 acres, up from 445 acres the previous year, according to the report. Average farm size increased only for those in the $1 million or more sales class category. Average farm size was unchanged or declined for all other sales class categories.
However, the number of farms increased for all sales classes except the $1,000-$9,999 and $10,000-$99,999 sales classes. The total number of farms in the United States was estimated to be 9,350 farms year over year at 2,002,700.
“In 2022, 30.0% of all farmland was operated by farms with less than $100,000 in sales, while 41.2% of all farmland was operated by farms with sales of $500,000 or more,” according to NASS analysts.
Last year, 50.8% of all farms had less than $10,000 in sales and 81.4% of all farms had less than $100,000 in sales. In 2022, 7.5% of all farms had sales of $500,000 or more.