Beef Market Update: Talking markets from the back of a horse

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This weeks’ episode of the Beef Market Update is coming to you from the back of a horse, which is likely as authentic as we can get while we’re talking cattle markets.

Anne Wasko of the Gateway Livestock Exchange is moving cattle, as yes, we approach October.

In the U.S., Wasko says this week is a pretty steady week in terms of cash cattle trade, and the live cattle futures market was not flat, despite all of the geopolitical tensions, especially earlier in the week. The fed and cash cattle markets were able to shrug off the negative news in commodity markets, and trade steady.

“Texas and Kansas were at $143, and that’s where they were last week as well. In the north, the range live would be $144-$147, $228-$230. All kind of steady with a week ago,” she explains. “The cutout has been slipping. It is that time of the year until we can get past the middle of October. This is not atypical. So we saw the cut out this week lose about another two and a half bucks on the choice to $246.”

As the industry works to get through the big swath of cattle, there’s been an escalation in carcass weights. Which, as Wasko explains, is a little bit on the alarming side, as we usually see the higher weights later on in the fall.

“Canadian steer carcass weights last week were 962 pounds. And this is still September — so that’s 23 pounds over a year ago. 33 pounds over the five-year average. And that’s only seven pounds off the all time high that we set in November of 2020,” she says. “A lot of the cattle that are sold this week for harvest are not getting kill dates until the middle of November. So there’s certainly a factor going on there.”

Check out the full conversation between Anne Wasko and RealAg Radio Host Shaun Haney, below:

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