There was another good run of feeder cattle at test auctions this week with 40,200 head. This report was the same as last week and almost twice as high as last year. Prices continue to climb higher following the previous week's bigger jumps. However, the bottom end of the price ranges jumped more this week with much more active bidding which tightened up the spreads between the highs and lows and pushed more prices higher.
Slaughter cow prices took an enormous drop and were mostly $5-7 lower even though the cow cutout was very close to steady during the last seven working days. The 90% trimmings, which are the largest product from the cows, was just a little higher than last week and only about $1 lower than last year during most of the last seven days. However slaughter cow prices are way below last year's prices at this time.
