Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures ended mostly firmer on Wednesday as wholesale beef prices stabilized after a recent slide and as a monthly government report helped to temper concerns about waning consumption.
Gains were capped by eroding beef packer margins, although cattle demand is likely to remain high this week amid an active daily slaughter pace, traders said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated the week’s cattle slaughter, through Wednesday, at 384,000 head, up from 356,000 in the same period last year.
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As the harvest in southern Alberta presses on, a broker said that is one of the factors pulling feed prices lower in the region. Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, added that lower cattle numbers in feedlots, plentiful amounts of grass for cattle to graze and a lacklustre export market also weighed on feed prices.
The choice boxed beef cutout slipped to $246.66/cwt on Wednesday, down nine cents from the prior day but up from an 18-month low of $243.75 at the end of September (all figures US$).
USDA updated its supply and demand forecasts in a monthly report on Wednesday, raising beef production and exports this year and next year. The agency also increased its per-capita beef consumption outlook by 0.2 pound for 2022 and by 0.3 pound for 2023.
USDA also raised its pork consumption estimates.
“The per-capita consumption domestically remains really high and that helped the consumer mindset. We’d had consumption fears with the stock market down and crude oil prices up. The USDA report alleviated some of those fears,” said Mike Zuzolo, president of Global Commodity Analytics.
CME October live cattle ended the day up 0.375 cent at 146.175 cents/lb. and the most-active December contract settled down 0.125 cent at 148.45 cents. Deferred contracts were up 0.125-0.55 cents.
CME November feeder cattle settled up 0.475 cent at 176.675 cents/lb.
CME October lean hog futures gained 0.075 cent to settle at 93.1 cents/lb, while the actively traded December contract gained 1.175 cents to settle at 80.7 cents/lb.
— Karl Plume reports on agriculture and ag commodities for Reuters from Chicago.
