Cattle futures were mixed to higher Thursday with Feeder Cattle receiving additional support from reclosure of the southern border to Mexican cattle imports due to New World screwworm.
Toward the close, Live cattle futures were mixed, from an average of 45¢ lower to an average of 24¢ higher. Feeder Cattle futures were an average of $1.02 higher.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from limited on moderate demand in the western Corn Belt to mostly inactive on moderate demand elsewhere through Thursday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service. Although too few to trend, there were some early FOB live trades in the western Corn Belt at $235/cwt.
Last week, FOB live prices were $224/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle, $224-$225 in Kansas, $230-$232 in Nebraska and $230-$234 in the western Corn Belt. Dressed delivered prices were $368.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $1.79 lower Thursday afternoon at $384.66. Select was $2.41 lower at $370.86.
Grain and Soybean futures firmed Thursday with likely short covering ahead of Friday’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates.
Toward the close and through Mar ‘26 contracts, Corn futures were mostly 4¢ lower to 1¢ higher. Kansas City Wheat futures were 10¢ higher. Soybean futures were mostly 3¢ to 7¢ higher.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed higher Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 192 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 17 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 19 points.
Through midafternoon, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) were 92¢ to $1.49 lower through the front six contracts.
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USDA shuttered southern ports to Mexican cattle imports again yesterday, following a new case of New World Screwworm (NWS) reported in Veracruz, 370 miles south of the U.S. Mexico border.
“This new northward detection comes approximately two months after northern detections were reported in Oaxaca and Veracruz, less than 700 miles away from the U.S. border, which triggered the closure of our ports to Mexican cattle, bison, and horses on May 11, 2025,” according to the USDA announcement.
“The United States has promised to be vigilant—and after detecting this new NWS case, we are pausing the planned port reopening’s to further quarantine and target this deadly pest in Mexico. We must see additional progress combatting NWS in Veracruz and other nearby Mexican states in order to reopen livestock ports along the Southern border,” says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. “Thanks to the aggressive monitoring by USDA staff in the U.S. and in Mexico, we have been able to take quick and decisive action to respond to the spread of this deadly pest.”