Corn futures closed 11¢ to 24¢ higher through Sep ’23, then 6¢ to 8¢ higher on expectations Monday’s USDA crop report will show a reduction in yields.
Soybean futures closed mostly 17¢ to 26¢ higher.
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 66¢ higher, helped along by strong cash demand.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of $1.00 higher, apparently with some speculation that cash prices will move higher next week, given ho-hum interest from packers the last couple of weeks.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from slow on light demand to mostly inactive on light demand through Friday afternoon, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Regionally, negotiated cash fed cattle prices last week were mainly steady to lower. Live prices were steady to $1 higher in the Southern Plains at $141/cwt., steady to $2 lower in Nebraska at $143 and steady in the western Corn Belt at $143-$145. Dressed prices were $2-$4 lower in Nebraska at $226. The previous week, dressed prices were $228-$232 in the western Corn Belt.
Choice Boxed beef cutout value was 75¢ lower at $257.26/cwt. Select was $1.31 lower at $243.73/cwt.
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Major U.S. financial indices closed higher on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 377 points higher. The S&P 500 closed 61 points higher. The NASDAQ was up 250 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures on the CME closed $3.14 to $3.29 higher through the front six contracts.
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In a recent issue of Cattle Market Notes Weekly, Burdine also notes beef cow slaughter levels remain 14% higher year over year. It is significantly more in the Southern Plains and surrounding states.
David Anderson, Extension livestock economist with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service provided perspective in the early-September issue of In the Cattle Markets from the Livestock Marketing Information Center. He looked at federally inspected beef and dairy cow slaughter for region 6, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and New Mexico. He also compared cow slaughter in the region this year to levels during the last major drought (2011-12) in Texas and parts of other states.
“Cow packing plants in region 6 have processed 668,000 beef cows this year, up 31% (or 157,000 head) from last year. They have processed 217,000 dairy cows this year, just slightly below last year,” Anderson explains. “The states in region 6 reported 8.4 million beef cows on January 1, 2022. Those states had 8.8 million beef cows on January 1, 2011. While cows may come into the region for slaughter, it’s likely that a larger proportion of the herd has been culled this year than in the last major drought.”
So far this year, Anderson says 8,000 more beef cows in region 6 have been slaughtered than in 2011; 164,900 head more than in 2012.
Recent rain and moderate temperatures across Texas could slow culling in the near term, according to Anderson.
“Watch national and regional beef cow culling over the next six weeks to better gauge the impact of these storms,” Anderson says. “Seasonally, the largest cow culling weeks of the year nationally occur in October and November. Rain and earlier heavy culling rates could pull back slaughter and boost prices.”