April live cattle gain $7.70 this week | Weekly Livestock Market Update
On this episode of Weekly Livestock Market Update, Brownfield's Meghan Grebner talks with Mississippi State University ag economist Josh Maples about April live cattle gaining $7.70 this week.
Market highlights:
Live steer prices ended the week at $196.90/cwt for the 5-market average which was down 75 cents from a week ago. The April live cattle futures contract was up sharply to $200.35 per cwt which is $7.70 higher than a week ago, and the March feeder cattle futures price was up $2.60 per cwt on the week to $277.58. Choice box beef was at $314.07 at the end of this week, which is up $1.28 from last week. Cash hogs were up 33 cents to $87.48/cwt. February lean hog futures were up $3.55 per cwt to $87.23 on the week. Pork cutout values were down 24 cents from a week ago, to $97.78/cwt this week.
Weekly Slaughter:
At the end of the week, cattle slaughter was 578,000 head, up 2 percent or 12,000 head from last week, and down 6,000 head from the same week last year. Hog slaughter was 2.418 million head, down 120,000 from the previous week and down 22,000 head compared to year ago.
Futures Market Movements and Risk Management:
There was lots of movement in futures prices this week. The May feeder cattle futures contract was as low $265 at one point on Tuesday up to nearly $279 during Friday’s trading. Simply put, prices are high but there is a lot of volatility. Risk management tools such as futures contracts or Livestock Risk Protection are worth checking out this year, especially as producers get a handle on what their calf crop will look like this year.
U.S. and Canada Cattle and Sheep Report:
USDA-NASS released their annual United States and Canadian Cattle and Sheep report on Wednesday this week. This report includes estimates of all cattle and calves on January 1, 2025. We’ve already dug into the U.S. numbers a few weeks ago, but I thought we’d take an opportunity to look at the Canadian numbers this week which USDA sources from Statistics Canada. Total cattle and calves in Canada on January 1 equaled 10.94 million head which compares to 86.66 million head in the U.S. This was a 1 percent decline in Canada from a year ago and includes 3.38 million beef cows and 962 thousand milk cows. The number of beef cows in Canada is down about 330 thousand head since 2021. One statistic that jumps out a bit is that heifers held for beef cow replacement in Canada increased 1 percent from 2024 to 2025 while this number in the U.S. decreased 1 percent. This suggests more heifer retention for expansion in Canada than is occurring in U.S. so far, at least on a percentage basis. On the sheep side, the report showed 806 thousand head of sheep in lambs in Canada on January 1, 2025 compared to 5.05 million head in the U.S.
Broiler Hatchery Report:
The Broiler Hatchery report was released by USDA this week and showed 251.5 million broiler-type eggs were set. This is up nearly 1 million from a week ago and up 3 percent higher than a year ago. 191 million broiler chicks were placed into meat production. This is up 455,000 chicks from a week ago and is 2 percent larger than last year. These data suggest larger broiler production in 2025 which matches with the more than one percent increase the February WASDE showed for 2025 over 2024.
Next Week's Report
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