Cash cattle prices were under pressure as packer demand was soft in both the North and South last week. Numbers of ready cattle will grow in the coming weeks.
Can prices gained in last week's fed cattle rally be maintained? There is some concern that the lack of cattle moving in the cash trade is starting to back cattle up and hurt hard-earned gains.
Packer margin is significant. However, why is packer profitability the only focus, and we are not as outraged about the other “elephant in the room” issue within our market?
Cattle producers continued to be in the crosshairs of the chaos in the global markets. In the south producers found $110 was the best trade they could get, with cattle trading as low as $105 by the end of last week.
After several days of up and downs in CME futures prices, cattle feeders saw their chances of getting back to steady slip away on Thursday as the board sold off.
If there was ever a question of how much outside influence there is on the cattle market it was completely exposed this past week with fears over the coronavirus growing.
