Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from limited on light demand to a standstill through Tuesday afternoon, with too few transactions to trend, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, FOB live prices were $189-$190/cwt. in the Texas Panhandle $188-$191 in Kansas, and mainly $197-$198 in Nebraska and the western Corn Belt.
Dressed delivered prices were $310-$312 in Nebraska and $310 in the western Corn Belt with prices stretching as high as $314.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was 75¢ higher Tuesday afternoon at $323.39/cwt. Select was 19¢ higher at $305.26/cwt.
Cattle futures closed narrowly mixed to lower on Tuesday, as traders bided their time for further cash direction. Before settlement, Feeder Cattle futures were an average of 40¢ lower except for 2¢ higher in spot Aug. Live Cattle futures were narrowly mixed, from an average of 28¢ lower to an average of 32¢ higher.
Grain and Soybean futures were lower Tuesday with apparent fund selling and potential positioning ahead of Friday’s Acreage and Grain Stocks reports. Heading into the close, Corn futures were 9¢ to 10¢ lower. Kansas City Wheat futures were 5¢ to 10¢ lower. Soybean futures were 13¢ to 19¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed mixed Tuesday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 299 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 21 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 220 points.
Heading into the close, West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME were 55¢ to 85¢ lower, through the front six contracts.
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Although corn and soybeans will likely receive the lion’s share of attention in Friday’s USDA Acreage report, the number of hay acres could provide hints to herd expansion in terms of availability and cost, according to Matthew Diersen, risk and business management specialist at South Dakota State University.
“Earlier this year producers expected to harvest 51.6 million acres of hay in the U.S. in 2024,” Diersen says, in the latest issue of In the Cattle Markets. “While down slightly from last year, the expected level exceeds the total expected for recent years. Acres above the prospective level would be a sign of expansion plans.”
For perspective, Diersen explains the 10-year average U.S. hay yield is 2.4 tons per acre. Using the average for the expected acres, he says, would result in 124 million tons of hay, exceeding last year’s production by 5 million tons.
“Thus, any acreage figure close to last year would likely generate the tons needed to keep prices reasonable,” Diersen says.