Feeder and live cattle futures fell hard on Friday while lean hogs closed on either side of unchanged.
Most-traded October live cattle futures settled at 225.975 cents a pound, down 6.250 cents. December live cattle closed at 227.925 cents a pound, down 5.700 cents.
Most-active September feeder cattle contracts closed at 340.375 cents per pound, down 9.250 cents. October feeders settled at 339.225 cents, down 9.250 cents a pound.
Choice boxed beef sank $0.10 per cwt to end at $378.84 per cwt according to the USDA’s afternoon report. Select boxed beef was valued at $355.09 per cwt, up $1.34.
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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.
“There’s no specific big news, we just got wildly overbought,” Matthew Wiegand, broker at FuturesOne, said. “It’s big volume in a once-in-a-lifetime market.”
An unconfirmed report of a case of New World screwworm in Oklahoma circulated this morning, reported analyst Hans Schmit with Walsh Trading.
The U.S. closed its border to Mexican cattle imports in July due to a case of the flesh-eating parasitic fly.
“Cattle can trade lower on headlines or rumors like screwworm concerns due to initial uncertainty,” said Schmit.
“One outcome is that exports decline, increasing short term supply. Another potential outcome is that retail demand suffers due to buyers choosing other meat than wholesale beef. What’s more likely is that supply is tightened further due to herd loss and a slower supply chain.”
Most-active October lean hog futures closed at 90.675 cents a pound, down 0.250 cents. December lean hogs settled at 83.775 cents per pound, down 0.025 cents.
Pork carcass cutout value sat at $117.41 per cwt, up $1.08 according to the USDA’s National Daily Pork Report FOB Plant report.
—With files from Reuters. Prices reported in USD.
