Cattle feeders offered 4,671 head in the weekly Fed Cattle Exchange auction on Wednesday. Of those, 860 head sold: 726 head for delivery at 1-9 days for a weighted average price of $100/cwt.; 174 head for delivery at 1-17 days for a weighted average price of $92.67. That was mainly on par with country trade so far this week.
Similarly, Choice 2-3 steers at Sioux Falls Regional (114 head) in South Dakota weighing an average of 1,453 lbs. sold for an average price of $100.15/cwt. across a range of $93.50-$102.00.
Wholesale beef values rocketed higher again Wednesday, as demand outpaces declining supplies.
Choice boxed beef cutout value was $15.90 higher Wednesday afternoon to a presumed record high of $275.75/cwt. Select was $12.20 higher at $261.02.
All of that seemed to have Cattle futures stuck in a wait-and-see mode, with light support and two-sided trade, other than a sharp drop in spot Live Cattle, given the likely continuation of near-term pressure on cash prices as the supply chain tries to sort its COVID-19 worker challenges.
Except for $2.65 lower in waning spot Apr, Live Cattle futures closed from 30¢ lower to 32¢ higher.
Except for 7¢ lower in May and 25¢ lower in the back contract, Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of 27¢ higher.
Corn futures closed mostly 4¢ to 8¢ higher through Mar ’21 and then mostly 2¢ to 3¢ higher.
Soybean futures closed 5¢ lower to 4¢ higher through Mar ‘21, and then mostly 8¢ to 10¢ lower.
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