Mackey: Are Showlists Large Enough to Keep Packers Comfortable?
The South was the first to blink last week at $178 per cwt. Cattle owners found the basis and steady money offers too hard to pass up. It wasn’t until Packers began to call the cattle out the following day their true needs were realized.
Word of this spread to feedyards in the North and traders stiffened up. Week to date Nebraska volume is 10,896 and 13,204 grids. Most of the business was done from $181-185 per cwt. and $290-292 per cwt. dressed, steady higher when compared to the previous week.
Nationally, packers purchased 17,335 more cattle than this time a week ago. As a whole they still have a little work to do. One starts to question if the cattle supplies are out there for the packer to get comfortable? It has been evident by the chain speed the packer is pulling out all the stops to not work themselves off the deep end.
Week to date harvest comes in at 539,000 head. That’s 85,000 larger than the estimates, but down from last week’s 647k and last year’s 588k.
Looking ahead, packers will continue to move cattle around and try to pull on their commitments, all to stay out of the active market. Feedyards will price inventory higher and continue to squeeze more out of their cattle.
A native of Torrington, WY, Brodie Mackey joined Consolidated Beef Producers in the spring of 2013 after earning his B.S. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Brodie’s focus at CBP includes customer development, cattle marketing and evaluation in Nebraska, Northeast Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming. For more about Consolidated Beef Producers visit here.
