Cattle futures crept mostly higher Tuesday.
Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 54¢ higher, except for an average of 55¢ lower in the front two contracts.
Live Cattle futures closed an average of 18¢ higher, except for an average of 8¢ lower in two contracts.
Negotiated cash fed cattle trade ranged from mostly inactive to a standstill through Tuesday afternoon with too few transactions to trend according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.
Last week, FOB live prices were $180/cwt. in the Southern Plains and $183-$184 in the North.
Dressed delivered prices were $290 in Nebraska and $288-$290 in the western. Corn Belt.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $2.08 lower Tuesday afternoon at $308.03/cwt. Select was $1.66 lower at $283.78/cwt.
Corn futures faltered Tuesday, closing mostly 6¢ to 9¢ lower on the monthly World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (see below), which pegged harvested acres and production higher than the trade expected.
KC HRW Wheat closed 4¢ to 7¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed 12¢ to 22¢ lower.
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Major U.S. financial indices eased lower Tuesday, led by tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 17 points lower. The S&P 500 closed 25 points lower. The NASDAQ was down 144 points.
West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil futures (CME) closed $1.20 to $1.55 higher through the front six contracts.
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USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) left expected fed steer prices unchanged for this year, in the September World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE).
The weighted average five-area direct fed steer price was projected at $184/cwt. in the third quarter and $190 in the fourth quarter for an annual average price of $178.50. The annual average price next year was forecast at $186 with prices in the first and second quarters $188 and $186, respectively.
Beef production was estimated to be 26.9 billion pounds this year, which would be 1.4 billion pounds less (-4.8%) than last year. Beef production for next year was forecasted to be 1.8 billion pounds less (-6.6%) than this year at 25.2 billion pounds.
Estimated beef production for this year was revised slightly lower, compared to the previous month’s WASDE, on a slower pace of marketings in the third quarter. “This decline is only partly offset by higher expected carcass weights in the quarter and higher expected cow slaughter in the third and fourth quarters,” ERS analysts say.
Corn
The 2023/24 U.S. corn outlook was for slightly larger supplies and ending stocks. Corn production for 2023/24 was forecast 23 million bushels higher than the previous month at 15.1 billion bushels, as greater harvested area more than offset a reduction in yield. The national average yield was forecast at 173.8 bushels per acre, down 1.3 bushels. Harvested area for grain was forecast at 87.1 million acres, up 0.8 million.
The forecast season-average corn price received by producers was unchanged at $4.90 per bushel.