Some up, some down
Cattle were yet to have traded as of last Friday afternoon, but bids stood at $119 while cattle owners asked $121 or higher. Beef production was up the week, estimated at 639,000 head, driven in large part by Saturday’s harvest of 16,000 head. Futures contracts were down some, partly due to the weeks’ release of USDA’s crop report that showed increased corn production plans relative to expectations.
Both CAB and Choice boxes traded sideways while Select beef traded down $1.50, moving the CH/SE spread to $4.40. Packers have begun to bring in more calf-feds and therefore have seen a decrease in grade. (Some calf-feds actually grade higher, but those are from the herds focused on improving genetics.) CAB acceptance for the week (4/29/12) stood at 24%.
Until we meat again,
David
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