Cattle Placements 10% above year-ago levels | Weekly Livestock Market Update for 3/22/24
Brownfield Anchor/Reporter Meghan Grebner and University of Missouri Market Analyst Scott Brown give a weekly recap of the markets and discuss how it can impact farmers’ bottom lines.
Learn more about what's happening in the agriculture markets here: https://brownfieldagnews.com/markets/
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This week in the markets:
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Live fed cattle prices are $1.70 higher on the week and stand $25 above the year-ago level, while feeder cattle prices were $3 to $5.00 higher this week. April live cattle were up $0.45 on the week, while April feeder cattle were down $0.05 on the week. Choice box beef was $2.50 higher this week. Cash hogs are up $1.00 this week. April lean hog futures were down $2.25 on the week. Pork cutout values were up $0.10 this week.
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Weekly slaughter:
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At the end of the week, cattle slaughter was 598,000 head, down 3,000 on the week and down 30,000 for the year. Hog slaughter was 2.532 million head, up 66,000 from the previous week and up 59,000 on the year. Year-to-date cattle slaughter is down 5.4% relative to last year, and hog slaughter is up 0.8%
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Livestock slaughter:
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February 2024 beef production totaled 2.2 billion pounds, up 3.6% from the year-ago level. Cattle dressed weights were 8 pounds higher in February 2024 relative to one year ago. Pork production in February 2024 totaled 2.4 billion pounds, up 9.9% relative to last year. February 2024 had one extra weekday due to the leap year.
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Cattle on feed:
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The March 2024 cattle on feed inventory stood at 101.3% of last year. This is at the upper end of the pre-report estimates. Cattle placed in February was 109.7% of last year and fell nearly one percentage point outside of the upper end of the pre-report estimates. One extra day due to leap year and low January placements due to the extremely cold weather pushed placements higher in February.
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Next week's reports:
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➡︎ Cold Storage
➡︎ Quarterly Hogs and Pigs
➡︎ Prospective Plantings
➡︎ Restaurant Performance Index
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