After running uphill for three consecutive months, stocker and feeder markets fell lower amid light receipts. By all accounts it was a fantastic run, adding about $35 per cwt. to the price of yearling feeder cattle.
This week yearling cattle traded $5 per cwt. lower while calves sold $5 to $10 lower. USDA Market News reporter Corbitt Wall says the bulk of summer and fall delivery yearlings have already been sold, as have many of the better fall delivery calves.
“Cooler weather and cooler heads prevailed across cattle country this past week,” Wall says. “Although the feeder market remains very strong, few sales reached excitable levels after the headlines from the last few weeks.
“Most market fundamentalists expect the record price levels to return after a minor correction,” Wall says. “Ideal growing conditions continue to push feedgrain prices lower and most don’t expect this year’s corn crop to see $4 per bushel again.”
Cash fed cattle prices were steady to $1 lower for the week at $155 to $157 per cwt. Cattle on a dressed basis sold $246 to $248 per cwt.
Slaughter cows and bulls sold $5 to $10 per cwt. higher in the West, $1 to $2 higher in Oklahoma, and $1 to $2 higher in the East. High dressing cows are selling at auction near $130 per cwt., with heavy-muscled slaughter bulls fetching $150 per cwt. and higher.USDA’s cutter cow carcass cutout value Friday morning was $228.04, down 57 cents per cwt. from last Friday.
