Profit Tracker – Cattle Margins Up, Pork Slips
Average cattle feeding margins totaled $206 per head the second week of April, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker. That average was $60 higher than the previous week and $19 per head higher than a year ago. The Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are calculated by Sterling Marketing, Inc., Vale, Oregon.
Estimated beef packer margins for the second week in April were $335 per head, up $10 per head from the previous week, and down $202 from the same week a year ago. Last week’s Choice beef cutout averaged $273 per cwt., $2 per cwt. higher than the previous week and $7 per cwt. higher than the same week a year ago.
Last week’s calculations were based on 5-area fed cattle prices of $141.75 per cwt., about $2 per cwt. higher than the previous week, and up $19 per cwt. from last year. Feed costs for the cattle marketed last week averaged $443 per head, down $10 from the previous week and up $97 per head from last year.
Cattle slaughter totaled an estimated 634,000 head, down 42,000 head from the previous week and up 148,000 head from last year. Packing plant capacity utilization was estimated at 85.0% compared to 90.6% the previous week and 64.0% last year.
Farrow-to-finish hog producers found profits of $61 per head last week, down $4 per head from the previous week and down $25 per head from last year. Lean carcass prices averaged $103.34 per cwt., down $0.63 from the previous week and up $2.19 from last year.
Pork packer margins were estimated at $2.52 per head, which compares to a loss of $7.54 per head the previous week and a profit of $2.98 per head last year. Hog slaughter was estimated at 2.34 million head, down 83,000 head from the previous week and up 9,000 head from last year.
Pork packer capacity utilization was estimated at 85.2% compared to 88.3% the previous week and 79.1% last year.
(Note: The Sterling Beef Profit Tracker calculates an average beef cutout value for the week in its estimates for feedyard and packer margins. Other prices in the weekly Profit Tracker also are calculated weekly averages. Feedyard margins are calculated on a cash basis only with no adjustment for risk management practices. The Beef and Pork Profit Trackers are intended only as a benchmark for the average cash costs of feeding cattle and hogs. Sterling Marketing is a private, independent beef and pork consulting firm not associated with any packing company or livestock feeding enterprise.)
