Cattle Rally to New All Time Highs on Tuesday

Austin Schroeder Barchart Tue Aug 5, 4:42PM CDT
Cows looking out from pen ear tagged by Manfred Antranias Zimmer via Pixabay

Live cattle futures posted stronger trade on Tuesday, with contracts up $3 to $3.40. There were no deliveries issued for August live cattle on Tuesday. Cash trade has been quiet this week, as last week picked up to $235-236 in the South and Northern trade reported at $247. Feeder cattle futures are rallied $5.10 to $5.65 across the front months on Tuesday. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was back up 21 cents to $336.03 on August 4.

Beef export data from Census and converted to a carcass basis was tallied at 217.03 million lbs for June. That was the lowest export total for any month since June 2020. 

USDA Wholesale Boxed Beef prices were higher in the Tuesday afternoon report, with the Chc/Sel spread at $24.00. Choice boxes were up $4.15 at $369.94, while Select was $4.35 higher to $345.94. USDA estimated cattle slaughter for Tuesday at 115,000 head, with the weekly total at 216,000 head. That was down 5,000 head from last week and 22,589 head lower vs. the same week in 2024.

Aug 25 Live Cattle  closed at $234.275, up $3.375,

Oct 25 Live Cattle  closed at $227.100, up $3.000,

Dec 25 Live Cattle  closed at $228.150, up $3.150,

Aug 25 Feeder Cattle  closed at $341.050, up $5.650,

Sep 25 Feeder Cattle  closed at $339.550, up $5.100,

Oct 25 Feeder Cattle  closed at $337.825, up $5.425,


On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.