Live cattle futures saw a 40 cent gain in the October contract on Friday, with the rest of the board steady to 20 cents lower. Cash trade this week has improved ~$2 from last week, with Southern sales tallied at $190-191, with the North at $190-192. The Central Stockyards online Fed Cattle Exchange auction showed sales of 212 head on the 1,594 head at $190-191.50 on Friday morning. Feeder cattle futures settled Friday with contracts anywhere from down 42 cents in some deferreds to up 22 cents in nearby October.  The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back down 47 cents at $249.09 on October 24. 

This afternoon’s Cattle on Feed report showed September placements down 1.91% from last year at 2.156 million head, with marketings up 2.04% at 1.698 million head. October 1 on feed inventory was down 0.03% from a year ago at 11.6 million head.

Cold Storage Data showed a total of 413.79 million lbs of beef stocks on September 30. That is the lowest for the month in 10 years and up 6.48% from the prior month. 

USDA wholesale Boxed Beef prices were higher in the Friday afternoon report. Choice boxes were up $1.07 to $322.24/cwt, with Select 74 cents higher @ $295.08. The Chc/Select spread widened to $27.16. USDA estimated the weekly federally inspected cattle slaughter at 623,000 head. That is 15,000 head above the previous week but down 11,701 head from the same week last year.

Oct 24 Live Cattle  closed at $189.700, up $0.400,

Dec 24 Live Cattle  closed at $189.150, down $0.100,

Feb 25 Live Cattle  closed at $189.925, down $0.025,

Oct 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $249.625, up $0.225,

Nov 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $248.575, up $0.050,

Jan 25 Feeder Cattle  closed at $245.625, up $0.100,