Cattle futures up sharply on the week | Weekly Livestock Market Update
In this video, Brownfield's Meghan Grebner and University of Tennessee ag economist Charley Martinez provide a weekly update on livestock slaughter, cold storage, and food price outlook.
Market highlights:
Live cattle prices closed at $211.05/cwt which is $0.58 down from last week. June live cattle prices ($208.3) were up $4.23 compared to a week ago, and May feeder cattle future prices ($290.65) were up $3.80 compared to last week. Choice box beef was at $331.97 end of this week, which is down 1% from last week. Select box beef was at $314.52 at the end of this week, which is down $0.04 from last week. Pork Cutout was $100.81, which is up 8% ($7.54) from last week. National Base Hog Carcass was up to $86.35, which is 3% higher than last week. May lean hog futures closed at $92.90 which is up 3% ($2.50) from a week ago.
Weekly Slaughter:
Cattle slaughter for the week is at 555,000, down 21,000 on the week and down nearly 58,723 on the year. Year-to-date cattle slaughter is down 5.8%
Hog slaughter for the week is at 2.43 million head, up 59,000 on the year, and up about 52,156 on the year. Year-to-date hog slaughter is down 2.8%
Livestock Slaughter 2024 Summary Report:
Total red meat production for the United States totaled 55 billion pounds in 2024, 1% higher than 2023.
Beef production totaled 27.0 billion pounds, up slightly from the previous year. Pork production was at 27.8 billion pounds, which was 2% above 2023.
Commercial cattle slaughter during 2024 totaled 31.8 million head, down 3% from 2023, with federal inspection comprising 98.2% of the total. The average live weight was 1,399 pounds, up 34 pounds from a year ago. Steers comprised 48.6% of the total federally inspected cattle slaughter, heifers 32%, dairy cows 8.7%, other cows 9.1%, and bulls 1.6%.
Commercial hog slaughter totaled 130 million head, 1% higher than 2023 with 99.5% of the hogs slaughtered under federal inspection. The average live weight was up 1 pound from last year, at 288 pounds. Barrows and gilts comprised 97.3% of the total federally inspected hog slaughter.
There were 1,089 plants slaughtering under federal inspection on January 1, 2025 compared with 1,012 last year.
Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas accounted for 50 percent of the United States commercial red meat production in 2024, up 1 percent from 2023.
Storage Reports:
Total Beef in storage was down 2% from February, 1% up from last year. Majority was driven down by boneless which was down 3%, while beef cuts were up 7% from February.
Pork remained unchanged from February to March, and was up 1% compared to a year ago. Stocks of pork bellies were up 14% from last month but down 26% from last year
Food Price Outlook:
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures the monthly change in prices paid by U.S. consumers.
Feb to March: Beef 1.6% increase, Pork 2.2% increase
Year over year: Beef 8.6% increase, Pork 2.9% increase
The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output.
Farm Level-Cattle: Feb to March had a .4% increase, and 10% year-over-year change
Next week’s reports:
» Ag Prices
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