With the long weekend behind them, cattlemen will look to get back to business this week. Last week’s market was slow and quiet and it with little activity until Friday and then evening until the bulk of the activity even occurred.
The South would roll at $190 cwt. Had the packer pushed the trade on Wednesday, cattle feeders would have passed the offer as steady money. The North however, saw little interest and $198-200 cwt would trade the bulk of the live cattle. Dressed bids continued to work late into the evening. Packers would push bids from $312 to $314 and eventually to $315 cwt to get cattle tripped. One would expect Monday’s report will show more volume than the extremely light numbers Friday. As it sits, packers are 18,888 head behind the limited week previous. Matching the slow buy was the slow harvest pace. Packers moved 517,000 head through their plants last week, one of the smallest kills we’ve seen in a long time. This should be supportive for the cutout post-holiday.
Looking ahead, cattle feeders have no intention of taking their foot off the pedal now. Lots of video sales and summer specials will start this week. Acquiring new inventory will be no small feat. The optimism will bleed over into cattle feeders’ higher asking prices. Packers will assess their position from the previous week and try digging their heels in once more to try and hold the market back.
