Cattle futures see a big drop 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 Prospective Plantings and trade and tariff news.
Market highlights:
Live steer prices averaged 212.26/cwt for the 5-market average which was up $0.12 from a week ago. The April live cattle futures contract was down $6.02 from a week ago to $202.80/cwt, and the April feeder cattle futures price was down $7.82 per cwt on the week to $279.10. Choice box beef was at $339.41 at the end of this week, which is up $5.58 from last week. Cash hogs were down 8 cents to $86.67/cwt. February lean hog futures were up 63 cents to $87.33/cwt on the week. The pork cutout value was up $2 from a week ago, to $98.42/cwt this week.
Weekly Slaughter:
At the end of the week, cattle slaughter was 591,000 head, down 3 percent or 18,000 head from last week, and down 23,000 head from the same week last year. Hog slaughter was 2.52 million head, up 2 percent or 81,000 from the previous week and down 93,000 head (4 percent) compared to year ago.
Prospective Plantings Report:
The USDA Prospective plantings report released this week showed farmers intend to plant 95.3 million acres of corn during 2025. This would be a 5 percent increase or nearly 5 million acres higher than 2024. Soybean acreage was estimated at 83.5 million acres which would be a 4 percent decline.
Trade and Tariffs:
The monthly ERS import/export trade report showed February beef exports down 7 percent and imports up 6 percent from February 2024. Pork exports were down 5 percent and imports down 6 percent.
Japan, South Korea, China, Mexico, and Canada were the biggest destinations for beef by volume during February and represented 23%, 22%, 15%, 12%, and 9% of the total, respectively. For beef imports, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and New Zealand were the primary sources by volume and represented 20%, 19%, 16%, 14%, and 13% of the total, respectively. Cattle imports were down 41 percent from a year ago with imports from Mexico down 79 percent.
Mexico was the largest destination for pork exports at 38 percent of the total. Japan and South Korea were next at 13 and 10 percent, respectively. Canada was the primary source for pork imports at 64 percent of total imports. Mexico and Denmark were next at 8 and 5 percent, respectively.
Of the countries listed above, the U.S. reciprocal tariff rates announced on April 2nd were: Japan (24%), South Korea (26%), China (34%), Brazil (10%), Australia (10%), and New Zealand (10%).
Jobs Report:
The latest job report showed nonfarm employment increased by 228,000 jobs during March. This was lower than a year ago but higher than was expected pre-report. The unemployment rate increased slightly to 4.2 percent and the labor-force participation rate was 62.5 percent. This report represents data collected during March.
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