Grimes and Plain Weekly Cattle Outlook

CHICAGO - Oct 13/06 - SNS -- Following is a week ending cattle market comment from the University of Missouri - Columbia's Glenn Grimes and Ron Plain.

Fed cattle prices came under some pressure at the end of last week. The average for live fed cattle price for the five-market-area was $89.75 per cwt down from $90.75 per cwt for the prior week. However, average weighted carcass prices held most of the gain of the prior week last week.

Packer's margins have not been desirable in recent weeks as a result natural beef is cutting hours into the 30's per week until conditions improve for packers. Tyson and Swift have also announced plans to cut hours for the next several weeks in order to improve packer margins according to trade reports.

Feeder cattle and calves at Oklahoma City this week were $2.00-4.00 per cwt lower than last week. The prices by weight groups for medium and large frame number one steers at Oklahoma City this week were: 400-500 pounds $124.50-145.00 per cwt, 500-600 pounds $112.00-124.50 per cwt, 600-700 pound calves $107.50-117.00 per cwt, 700-750 pound calves $100-109 per cwt, 600-700 pound yearlings $113.75-119.00 per cwt, 700-800 pounds $110-115 per cwt and 800-1,000 pounds $95.50-109.25 per cwt.

Replacement cow prices this week at Oklahoma City were: heifers weighing 1,050-1,100 pound bred 5-7 months high-quality black $1,005-1,010 per head, 3-5-year old cows, weighing 1,000-1,250 pounds, bred 5-7 months, high-quality blacks $855-860 per head. Some 5-8-year old cows, weighing 1,050-1,250 pounds, bred 2-6 months, average quality blacks $685-785 per head. Some 5-7-year old cows, weighing 1,000-1,300 pounds, bred 2-5 months, average quality $610-675 per head.

Cow slaughter for the week ending September 30, was up 19.5% from a year earlier. Beef cow slaughter was up 23.2% and dairy cow slaughter was up 15.6%.

Wholesale beef this Friday morning for Choice beef at $143.53 per cwt was up $1.04 per cwt for the week. Select beef prices were up $0.46 at $134.95 per cwt Friday morning.

The weighted average price for live fed cattle for the 5-market-area through Thursday was down $0.93 per cwt at $87.87 per cwt. The weighted average carcass price through Thursday for the 5-market-area at $137.000 per cwt was down $2.75 per cwt from seven days earlier.

Negotiated trade for fed cattle this week developed quite extensively on Wednesday and Thursday. Through Thursday, 150.022 thousand head moved through the negotiated trade. This compares with only 4.7 thousand head on the negotiated trade last week through Thursday.

Slaughter this week under Federal Inspection was estimated at 625 thousand head, up 2.6% from a year earlier.

Issued by Glenn Grimes and Ron Plain

University of Missouri - Columbia

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