Cattle markets traded lower today with February live cattle down .600 settling at 151.100 and November feeder cattle settling 1.325 lower at 174.775. According to the USDA actual dressed cattle weights for the week ending October 1 came in at 831 pounds which was up from 829 from the previous week and unchanged from 831 a year ago. The 5-year average weekly weight for that week is 830.2. Actual beef production for the same week came in at 553.2 million pounds which is up 530.6 million a year ago. The USDA estimated cattle slaughter numbers came in at 127,000 head yesterday. This brings the total for the week so far to 511,000 head, up from 510,000 last week at this time and up from 477,000 a year ago. I’m hearing fourth quarter beef production is expected to come down 2.9% and 1st quarter production is expected to be down 4.5% compared to the previous year.
