June 14 -- The cash live cattle trade Friday morning was light to moderate. USDA’s mandatory price reporting (MPR) service reported that Nebraska sold 3,810 head at $195/cwt. dressed for a weekly total of 10,316 head. Iowa-southern Minnesota sold 4,664 head at $195 dressed for a weekly total of 15,737 head. Kansas sold 5,200 head at $120, with some at $189.50 dressed, for a weekly total of 9813 head. Texas sold 613 head at $120 for a weekly total of 1,882 head. The MPR weekly totals include negotiated cash and grid sales.

Live cattle futures closed lower. June closed down 85 points at $119.00/cwt. (vs. $120.12 last Friday), August closed down 75 points at $118.32, October closed down 97 points at $121.87, December closed down 85 points at $124.57, February closed down 105 points at $125.65 and April closed down 87 points at $127.22.

The week’s cattle slaughter was an estimated 644,000 head (vs. 654,598 head last year), with Friday’s kill 123,000 head and Saturday’s kill 31,000 head.

Year-to date-FI slaughter is an estimated 14.530M head, down 1.6% or 240,000 head from 2012’s 14.770M head. Hog slaughter year to date is down 0.3% on last year.

Boxed-beef cutout values were weak to lower on very light to light demand and light offerings. The Choice cutout declined $1.10/cwt. from the day before to $199.53/cwt. (vs. $201.57 last Friday), while the Select cutout declined $0.58 to $183.79.The Choice-Select price spread was $15.74/cwt. (vs. $18.20 last Friday). The reported spot boxed-beef trade for the week was 684 loads of fabricated cuts, 1.7% lower than the 696 loads the week before.

Packer margins for the week were positive by $42.51/head, compared to a positive $72.59 the week before, according to HedgersEdge.com.

Have a good week,

Steve Kay