GENERAL COMMENTS:
Unfortunately, Wednesday wasn't as kind to the marketplace as Tuesday was and left all three markets closing lower. Hog prices closed $0.69 higher on the National Direct Afternoon Hog Report, equating to a weighted average of $56.23. May corn is down 8 3/4 cents per bushel and May soybean meal is up $5.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 1,338.46 points and NASDAQ is down 344.94 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
Live cattle contracts took Wednesday's close especially hard as all contracts closed with $2.00 to $4.00 losses. April live cattle closed $4.25 lower at $92.10, June live cattle closed $3.82 lower at $85.92 and August live cattle closed $2.92 lower at $86.65.
Another round of light to moderate trade developed at generally higher money than Monday's decline. So far the full range of dressed deals in the North are $168 to $177, last week's weighed average in Nebraska was $174.66. Full range of Southern live business is $105 to $113
(last week's weighted averages, Texas $109.34, Kansas $108.70). As a side note, the last time that Nebraska has sold over 46,000 head was 5/06/2019 and their weekly total is currently at 46,506.
Boxed beef prices closed higher: choice up $7.31 ($247.24) and select up $9.18 ($238.50) with a movement of 228 loads (142.72 loads of choice, 44.15 loads of select, 14.58 loads of trim and 26.14 loads of ground beef). Wednesday's slaughter is estimated at 122,000 head, 1,000 head less than last week and 1,000 more than a year ago. Cargill will not be processing at the Dodge plant Friday or Saturday for solely cleaning purposes. The cleaning and maintenance has been schedule for over a month and this is historically when a lot of plant do regular maintenance.
THURSDAY'S CASH CATTLE CALL: Steady to slightly higher. If packers are buying up cull cows left and right in order to fill pens as they swiftly work through their inventory, feeders have a chance at upping prices this week. It will really depend on how everyone chooses to sell. If trade is sparse from here until Friday, there's a good chance of $1.00 to maybe even $2.00 higher, but if packers can peel off a pen here and pen there, prices will most likely stay where they are.
FEEDER CATTLE:
Feeder cattle contracts closed fully lower with deferred contracts losing the most position. March feeders closed $0.97 lower at $112.57, April feeders closed $1.25 lower at $109.62 and May feeders closed $3.32 lower at $108.52. Feeder cattle sales were once again too lightly tested to develop an accurate test, but it was interesting that weigh up cows sold with excellent demand as packers continue to aggressively buy most of the cows offered for immediate harvest. Slaughter cows in Billings, MT, were noted to be $5.00 to $6.00 higher, and slaughter bulls were $3.00 to $4.00 higher. The CME feeder cattle index 3/17/2020: down $0.64, $123.36.
LEAN HOGS:
The lean hog market continued to trade lower after the noon hour and the few contracts that were trading positively ended up closing in the red. April lean hogs are down $0.32 at $58.10, June lean hogs are down $3.12 at $67.30 and July lean hogs are down $1.92 at $70.35. Pork cutouts total 475.92 loads with 433.90 loads of pork cuts and 42.01 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $0.48, $74.90. Wednesday's slaughter is estimated at 498,000 head, 11,000 head more than a week ago and 20,000 head more than a year ago. The CME lean hog index 3/16/2020: up $0.45, $59.74.
THURSDAY'S CASH HOG CALL: Steady to slightly higher. Seeing that packers have retail shelves to fill, cash prices should continue to trade strong into the end of the week.
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