GENERAL COMMENTS:
I've heard of luck traipsing around Christmas,
but I don't know that I recall cattlemen touting that Thanksgiving ever
shared that much luck with them. I guess it's a good thing that 2019 is a
year full of changes, and this week brings some good changes. Hog
prices are higher on the National Direct Afternoon Hog Report, up $0.35
with a weighted average of $42.80 - pushing closer and closer to $43.00.
December corn is down 4 3/4 cents per bushel and January soybean meal
is down $0.90. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 43.88 points and
NASDAQ is up 57.25 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
One would have thought that a nasty snowstorm
and a shorter week would have left contracts to fend for themselves
while families gather around the kitchen table for the Thanksgiving
holiday, but that's simply not the case this time around. Live cattle
contracts have been fierce about making steady, significant gains the
last couple of days and cash trade has kept packers glued to their
phones seeing what other packers are bidding and if feeders have sold
yet. Nebraska feeders sold dressed cattle for $187 and live cash cattle
from $118 to $120. Kansas is holding tough with fats priced at $120
while packers have them bid at $118. Oklahoma sold fats for $117 to
$118. Some of the dressed cattle were sold with time for the week of
12/2/19 and 12/16/19. Wednesday heated things up and made the reports
interesting to watch come in. Now the question remains, what will Friday
do?
Closing boxed beef prices are mixed: choice up
$0.40 ($232.24) and select down $1.65 ($210.64) with a movement of 119
loads (63.52 loads of choice, 21.72 loads of select, 8.36 loads of trim
and 25.17 loads of ground beef). Wednesday's slaughter is estimated at
116,000 head, down 1,000 head from last week and down 6,000 head from a
year ago.
*Tuesday's slaughter was revised to 107,000 head, not the 110,000 head stated previously.
FRIDAY'S CASH CATTLE CALL: Steady with current
asking prices. Given that some feeders have been able to work it and
push packers to paying $4.00 higher for live cattle and $3.00 higher for
dressed cattle, it's going to make other feeders downright determined
to capture their own piece of victory this week.
FEEDER CATTLE: Feeder cattle contracts may have
softened Tuesday, but after latching onto the momentum from the live
cattle contracts, feeder cattle contracts were able to close the day
significantly higher. January feeders closed $1.70 higher at $143.65,
March feeders closed $1.70 higher at $143.92 and April feeders closed
$1.57 higher at $145.62.
On an estimated run of 2,341 head (down 820 head
from the previous week) Miles City Livestock Commission in Miles City,
Montana, sold steers weighing less than 550 pounds mostly steady to
$10.00 to $14.00 higher, 550 to 649 pound steers sold steady to $3.00
lower. Heifers weighing 400 to 599 pounds sold mostly $4.00 to $6.00
lower, heifer calves over 600 pounds sold with higher undertones. The
barn noted that because most of cattle country was shut down due to the
storm, many buyers couldn't make it to the sale. The CME feeder cattle
index 11/26/19: up $0.23 at $145.02.
LEAN HOGS:
Something had to give this week and it ended up
being the lean hog contracts. December lean hogs closed $0.15 lower at
$60.67, February lean hogs closed down $0.67 at $67.15 and April hogs
closed $0.72 lower at $73.62. Pork cutouts are not available currently
due to packer submission problems. The CME lean hog index 11/25/19: down
$0.30 at $57.88.
FRIDAY'S CASH HOG CALL: Steady. The board may be
down, but knowing that producers were able to squeak a little more out
of packers is a positive sign. It may be shortcoming knowing that the
excitement surrounding the holidays is going to be here and gone before
we know it, but Friday's not completely out of luck for this week.
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| #completeherdhealth |
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