Feeder cattle receipts continue to be good with 27,800 head at the test auctions which was just a little better than last week and about 2,000 head over last year. CME price improvements helped the yearling prices increase which also helped to pull more cattle off of the native pastures.

However, slaughter cow prices went the other direction. They started dropping on the heels of a big drop in the cow cutout and 90% trimmings on Wednesday. Receipts at the test auctions dropped some after last week’s very big numbers when more cows came to auctions because of the previous two weeks of holiday shutdown.