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Cattle feeders hope the cash market found its bottom last week.

Cattle feeding margins took another tumble last week as cash fed cattle prices declined $2.40 per cwt.

Beef packer margins jumped into the black last week while cattle feeders saw their margins improve $88 per head, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.

A $4 per cwt. rally in cash fed cattle prices reduced losses for fed cattle to less than $50 per head last week.

Beef packers saw their margins jump $51 per head higher last week, ending with profits more than $83.

Cattle feeding losses nearly doubled last week as cash fed cattle prices declined another $2 per cwt.

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.

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

Last week’s $2.50 rally in the cash market was another step in the right direction, but closeouts remain $26.46 per cwt. short of break even.

It’s the best signal cattle feeders have seen in many months.