Latest News From Hog Production

Cattle feeders generally expected margins to be much better by now. An anticipated spring rally that could have erased a lot of red ink has failed to materialize, leaving feedyard closeouts stuck in neutral with near $200 losses.

The march toward break even for cattle feeders stumbled last week as average losses increased $36 per head, leaving closeouts $113 in the red, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.

Cattle feeders found a modest improvement of $40 on closeouts last week, but the bottom-line was still $345 in the red. 

Beef packers saw their margins jump more than $86 per head higher last week, leaving average profits at $199, according to calculations by Sterling Marketing, Vale, Ore. 

After slicing more than 50% off the monstrous losses found a month ago, cattle feeders saw their margins slip $43 per further into the red last week with $2 per cwt. lower bids. 

Cattle feeding margins improved by 50% over the past two weeks, and by 38% during the past week. 

Calculated breakeven prices for cattle shipped from feedyards last week were $170.12, according to Sterling Marketing, Vale, Ore.

The adjectives have all been used to describe the despair that is cattle feeding. Last week was simply worse than the week before, which was a train wreck.