Moving the market
November 28,2011
Here’s your Meat Market Minute for the week:
Packer buyers this past week were purchasing a full week’s worth of cattle and did so in just 3 days (Holiday shortened). Expectations coming in to that week were for steady to lower values, especially given the weakness in the futures market (Dec $121.30). However, packers raised their bids on Wednesday to $123/$124 in the South and $127 in the North in order to lock up needs prior to the long weekend.
Despite attention being turned to turkeys and hams, all quality levels of boxed beef moved up last week. Packers continue to push boxed values higher to work toward black margins, and reports estimated those had been running as low as -$60/head. With this in mind, many in the beef industry expect cattle harvest numbers to be subdued through the remainder of 2011, as live cattle are likely to stay above $120/cwt.
‘Till we meat again,
-David
David O’Diam is CAB’s assistant director of packing. A born-and-bred Ohian who holds an undergraduate and master’s from The Ohio State University, David makes connections, educates and is the go-to guy for anything CAB Prime or CAB Natural. He also watches the markets, both live cattle and boxed beef, like a hawk. He keeps our sales and supply development staff (and you!) updated on weekly trends in the beef trade.
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