The House and Senate are on recess this week, but work is ramping back up to finalize 2021 legislation before the New Year begins.

During the past six months, beef consumers have reinforced their preference for product at the top end of the market. Both branded and Prime products have been supported by unprecedented demand.

The December Cattle on Feed report, released on Friday, was the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year decreases in feedlot inventories, though November and December totals were only down slightly.

Cattle feeders anticipated cash cattle prices would be softer since packers were working with holiday-shortened hours last week. Packers will need cattle this week to fill full-week schedules.

Concerns over the COVID-19 variant headlined news last week. Bob Utterback of Utterback Marketing and Mark Gold of StoneX Group both say they are friendly on cattle and hog prices, but caution about outside influences.

Drought brings many nutritional and animal health-related challenges for ranchers. Cow performance issues during the grazing season may result from reduced forage quality and quantity.