Cattle Market Wrap-up: Recap for week ending Oct. 31

Weekly Fed cattle recap for week ending Oct.31

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The feedlot cattle trades for WE Oct 31 were steady to 2 lower and the cash sales volume was lower again than the previous week. 

The five area formula sales volume totaled 217,714 head compared to about 246,000 the previous week.   The five area total cash steer and heifer volume was  46,173 head compared to about  77,000 head the previous week, but still big numbers of 15-30 day delivery to use yet.

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Nationally reported forward contracted cattle harvested was about  29,000 head this week.  The nationally reported 15-30 day delivery purchases this week were 10,764 head along with 28,050 head the previous week.

Now looking at the prices. 

The weekly weighted average cash steer price for WE 10/31/20 for the five-area region was 104.24, which was $0.83 lower compared to the previous week and last year the same week it was 113.03 which was about 3.00 higher that week last year.  The current five area weighted average live formula price was 109.73 this week which was about 5 dollars higher than the cash price with over 66,000 head so this volume the last 5 weeks has jumped up well over twice higher than where it was for a long time.

The weighted average cash dressed steer price was 161.19 which was $ 2.76 lower. The five-area weighted average formula price was 171.81 which was $1.92 lower.

The estimated weekly total FIS cattle harvest was reported at 638,000 head which compared to 659,000 head the same week last year. 

The latest average National steer carcass weight for WE 10/17/20 was 929 lbs which was 1 lbs higher than the previous week and compared to 900 lbs the same week last year which was 1 lbs lower compared to the previous week last year.           

Choice-Select spread ended the week at 16.86 on Friday compared to 16.09 the previous week and that compared to 25.69 spread last year.