GENERAL COMMENTS:
The livestock complex is off to rough start for the week as all three of the markets are trading lower into Monday's noon hour. New showlists appear to be mixed, higher in Texas, but lower in Kansas and Nebraska/Colorado. May corn is down 4 1/4 cents per bushel and May soybean meal is down $3.80. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 345.14 points and NASDAQ is up 15.64 points.
LIVE CATTLE:
It's almost as if the cattle complex thinks cattlemen and traders alike would grow weary if the market simply traded in a lackadaisical mundane fashion as opposed to the rollercoaster ride it turns into at times. Which perfectly describes the market's $3.00 to $4.00 decline Monday morning as news broke late last week that union workers will indeed strike at the JBS packing plant in Greeley, Colorado. The strike is expected to happen the week of March 16, and JBS intends to shift production to other facilities during that time. This causes great anxiousness for the cattle complex as the market is already seeing minimal throughput from packers as they try to manage their margins to the best of their ability. It also raises the question: How is this going to affect beef consumers? Unfortunately, a level of uneasiness will likely reside within the market until this ordeal is played out; expect continued volatility until then. April live cattle are down $4.40 at $230.15, June live cattle are down $4.37 at $227.10 and August live cattle are down $3.80 at $225.45. New showlists appear to be mixed, higher in Texas, but lower in Kansas and Nebraska/Colorado.
Last week Southern live cattle traded at $240, which is $4.00 lower than the previous week's weighted average, and Northern dressed cattle traded at $380, which is $3.00 lower than the previous week's weighted average.
Boxed beef prices are higher: choice up $3.44 ($390.66) and select up $2.28 ($381.23) with a movement of 21 loads (11.41 loads of choice, 2.75 loads of select, zero loads of trim and 7.13 loads of ground beef).
FEEDER CATTLE:
As expected, the feeder cattle complex has noted the decline in the live cattle market and consequently elected to send its contracts tumbling $4.00 to $5.00 lower into Monday's noon hour. March feeders are down $4.30 at $351.32, April feeders are down $5.22 at $346.45 and May feeders are down $5.80 at $342.27. Until the live cattle complex settles down and trade in a more stable manner, the feeder cattle contracts will likely continue to scale lower.
LEAN HOGS:
Not even the lean hog complex can trade higher Monday morning as its market is also seeing a slight regression into the noon hour. April lean hogs are down $0.67 at $94.95, June lean hogs are down $1.42 at $99.42 and July lean hogs are down $1.07 at $111.62. For the lean hog complex the market's resistance seems to be inflicting pressure more than anything else.
The projected CME Lean Hog Index for 3/6/2026 is up $0.13 at $90.87, and the actual index for 3/5/2026 is up $0.19 at $90.74. Hog prices are unavailable on the Daily Direct Morning Hog Report because of confidentiality. However, we can see that 2,190 head have traded and the market's five-day rolling average now sits at $91.56. Pork cutouts total 135.42 loads with 114.95 loads of pork cuts and 20.47 loads of trim. Pork cutout values: up $3.80, $102.07.
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