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Cattle and hog finishing margins are both positive for the fourth consecutive week despite the fact cash prices for cattle and hogs were slightly lower last week.

Average cattle and hog finishing margins are both positive for the third consecutive week, according to calculations in the Sterling Marketing Profit Tracker.

Beef packers saw their margins decline to the lowest level since before the Tyson packing plant fire August 9 as beef cutout prices declined and cash cattle prices increased.

Last week’s $2 rally in cash cattle prices helped narrow the spread between feedyard losses and packer profits.

The combination of shrinking packer profits and smaller feedyard losses over the past six weeks has reduced the packer/feeder margin spread by 27%, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.

Sharply higher beef cutout values produced windfall profits for beef packers last week while cattle feeders saw closeouts with average losses about steady, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.

Last week’s $1 increase in cash fed cattle prices did little for feedyard profits, but the $6.40 rally in wholesale beef prices added another $25 onto already large packer margins.

Cattle feeding margins slipped further into the red last week on soft cash prices, while packer margins climbed to extreme heights.

Average cattle feeding margins improved $20 per head last week, which beef packer margins declined 17%. Farrow-to-finish operations recorded per head losses for the fourth consecutive week.

Cattle and hog finishing profit margins were little changed from last week, with modest profits for cattle and losses for hogs. Beef packer margins declined again to their lowest mark since March.