Cattle Current Podcast—Sept. 4 and 5, 2023

Cattle futures drifted lower Friday on pre-weekend positioning, sluggish trade and steady to softer cash fed cattle prices.

Feeder Cattle futures closed an average of $1.26 lower, except for $3.30 higher in newly minted away Aug

Live Cattle futures closed an average of 41¢ lower, except for $1.00 higher in new away Feb.

Negotiated cash fed cattle trade was limited on light to moderate demand in all regions through Friday afternoon with too few transactions to trend, according to the Agricultural Marketing Service.

Based on the latest established trade for the week, FOB live prices were steady to $1 higher in the Texas Panhandle at $179/cwt., steady to $1 lower in Kansas at $178-$179, $3 lower in Nebraska at $182 and $1-$2 lower in the western Corn Belt at $183-$185.

The five-area direct weighted average fed steer price through Thursday of last week was $182.69/cwt. on a live basis, which was $2.64 less than the previous week. The weighted average steer price in the beef was $2.03 lower at $290.62.

Choice boxed beef cutout value was 70¢ higher Friday afternoon at $314.49/cwt. Select was $1.04 higher at $290.29/cwt.

Estimated total cattle slaughter last week was 629,000 head, which was 3,000 head more than the previous week but 13,000 head fewer than the same week last year. Year-to-date estimated total cattle slaughter of 21.8 million head was 940,000 head fewer (-4.1%) than the same time last year. Estimated year-to-date beef production of 17.8 billion pounds was 925.6 million pounds less (-4.9%) year over year.

Turning to row crops, Grain and Soybean futures closed narrowly mixed Friday with some defensive positioning ahead of the long weekend.

Corn futures closed mostly 1¢ to 2¢ higher.

KC HRW Wheat closed mostly 5¢ lower.

Soybean futures closed mixed but mostly unchanged to 2¢ higher.