Heading into the noon hour the entire livestock complex heads lower as pressure from outside markets pull on the marketplace. May corn is down 6 1/4 cents per bushel and July soybean meal is up $0.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 637.29 points and NASDAQ is down 312.91 points.
LIVE CATTLE
Cattle contracts trade $1.00 to $2.00 lower heading into the noon hour. June live cattle are down $2.32 at $82.77, August live cattle are down $1.80 at $88.30 and October live cattle are down $1.77 at $93.55. As the entire future complex trades lower with pressure building from outside markets and the complexities of COVID-19, it becomes harder and hard for contracts to attract buyers in this chaotic environment. Midmorning there was around 1,000 head of fats that sold in Nebraska for $150. The rest of the countryside has been motivated to sell. Asking prices are around $105 in the South and $168 in the North. With supply growing and readily available fat sitting in numerous feedlots -- it's going to continue to be a challenge to market fat cattle.
Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $6.75 ($255.13) and select up $7.45 ($245.44) with a movement of 42 loads (19.15 loads of choice, 7.05 loads of select, 7.78 loads of trim and 8.27 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE
Down go fat cattle prices and feeder cattle contract aren't far behind. The feeder cattle contracts have softened to Tuesday's arrival and are trading mostly $1.75 to $2.25 lower. May feeders are down $1.70 at $115.57, August feeders are down $2.37 at $125.27 and September feeders are down $2.32 at $126.92. Coming off last week's strength, it's disappointing to see contracts weaken again but as pressure builds in the oil industry - fear and worry continue to influence the marketplace.
LEAN HOGS
The board may be trading mostly lower but there's good news on the lean hog home front! Tyson announced that it will be reopening the pork processing plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa after the plant has been shut down for two weeks now. If there's one thing we all can agree on it's that we want our family, friends and fellow American's safe and then after that we want then plants up and running. One of the quickest ways to cripple an industry is by shutting the plants down so if there's way to monitor the situation and keep all of those who are involved safe -- open the doors and line up the trucks!
June lean hogs are up $1.55 at $47.77, July lean hogs are down $0.25 at $53.52 and August lean hogs are down $1.05 at $57.60. The projected lean hogs index for 4/20/2020 is up $0.22 at $44.77 and the actual index for 4/17/2020 is down $0.40 at $44.55. Hog prices are lower on the National Direct Morning Hog Report, down $0.40 with a weighted average of $31.37, ranging from $31.00 to $32.00 on 3,175 head sold and a five-day rolling average of $32.73. Pork cutouts total 252.68 loads with 229.95 loads of pork cuts and 22.73 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $2.53, $69.21.
 |
| #completeherdhealth |
No comments:
Post a Comment