Cattle futures closed lower Friday, pressured by lower negotiated cash fed cattle prices, seasonally reluctant wholesale beef values, another New World screwworm case in Mexico creeping closer to the U.S. border, as well as week-end and month-end positioning.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of $2.17 lower. Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $4.82 lower.
Week to week on Friday, Live Cattle futures closed an average of 67¢ lower. Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $1.63 lower during the same period, extending the previous week’s steep decline.
Negotiated cash fed cattle prices lost ground on Friday, although the market had yet to be established in all regions through the afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Trade was light on moderate demand in Nebraska, where FOB live prices were $3-$10 lower at $255/cwt. and $3-$5 lower in the beef (delivered) at $405.
Trade was limited on moderate demand in the Texas Panhandle and the western Corn Belt. Although too few transactions to trend, there were some early FOB live trades in the Texas Panhandle at $256 and in the western Corn Belt at $255-$258 with dressed delivered prices at $405.
Trade was inactive on moderate demand in Kansas.
The previous week, FOB live prices were $260 in the Texas Panhandle, $259-$260 in Kansas and mostly $260 in the western Corn Belt, where dressed delivered prices were mostly $410.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 85¢ lower Friday afternoon at $391.47/cwt. Select was $2.40 lower at $383.18. Week to week on Friday, Choice boxed was $1.20 higher, but Select was $1.82 lower.
Corn and Soybean futures closed lower Friday, as traders took back war premium and positioned for the end of the week and the end of the month.
Corn futures closed mostly 6¢ to 9¢ lower through Jly ‘27. Week to week on Friday, they were an average of 12’1¢ lower through the front six contracts.
Soybean futures closed 3¢ to 7¢ lower through May ‘27.
Kansas City HRW Wheat futures closed 12¢ to 15¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed higher Friday, led by tech stocks and supported by lower Crude Oil prices tied to what was deemed progress in peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 363 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 16 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 55 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) were $1.30 to $1.54 lower through the front six contracts.
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During last week’s U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF), members gained insights from a distinguished panel of livestock industry experts, including Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University; Nevil Speer of Turkey Track Consulting; and Don Close, senior animal protein analyst with Terrain.
The panel addressed factors impacting protein demand in both the international and domestic markets, noting the important role exports play in bolstering the profitability of livestock producers and incentivizing industry expansion. But expansion of the beef cattle herd has been elusive, due to factors such as volatile grazing conditions and hay availability, and persistently higher operating costs.
“You cannot stabilize the cow inventory by not killing cows,” Close explained. “If we’re not putting replacement heifers on top of that, we’re going to continue to decline. By not killing the cows and not replacing with females, the average age of our cow herd is getting substantially older. When we do finally start to expand, we’re going to have to retain enough females, not only to rebuild what we’ve lost, but we’re going to have to retain additional replacement females because of the accelerated attrition of the cows that are still out there.”
The tight cattle supply has fueled misperceptions about the impact of trade, with some media outlets suggesting that exports reduce availability for U.S. consumers. Peel illustrated the benefits of trade by drawing a comparison with households that periodically fill their home freezer with a full range of beef cuts.
“I always remind producers, because they almost all have freezer beef, what’s it like when you get down to the stuff that’s in the bottom of the freezer,” he said. “When you start talking to the other half of the household about how you need to get another beef in the freezer, you get reminded: ‘no, you’ve got to eat that stuff before we get another one.’ By exporting the cuts we don’t like to eat as much, trade allows us to clean out the bottom of the freezer, so that we can focus U.S. demand on the cuts we really want.”
Speer highlighted the benefits producers have realized from raising higher grading cattle that meet consumers’ demand for high-quality beef. He contrasted the current situation with the 1980s and 90s, when the beef industry was losing the battle for consumer dollars spent on protein.
“Now we’re in a whole new realm,” Speer said. “This is what’s bringing consumers back – the quality and the consistency. And this did not just happen, right? We’ve gotten better at genetics, we’ve gotten better at management, and we’re starting to listen to consumers, and it makes all the difference in the world.”