Cattle prices were mixed on today’s trade with Feeder contracts settling close to 50 cents higher and Live contracts settling just about 25 to 50 cents higher. Early morning trade was higher before the USDA WASDE report came out which showed that beef is raised for the second half with higher expected slaughter numbers as well as higher carcass weights for that period. For next year, the USDA is forecasting that red meat production is raised due to the expectation of higher production. Higher than expected placements in late 22 will have an impact come later in the first half of 2023, previous expectations were lower production for the first quarter of ’23. Based on the USDA report, Cattle prices are raised on current strength in packer demand, but forecasts for 2023 are unchanged.
Cash live cattle traded some pretty low volume on Tuesday in the Iowa/Minnesota area. There were 1,321 head reported at 146 versus an average of 147.10 from last week. The USDA cattle slaughter numbers came in at 128,000 head yesterday which brings the total for the week so far to 256,000 head, up from 255,000, last week and 238,000 from a year ago.