Live cattle fell sharply on Wednesday with losses of over 3% for Feb. The other front months were $3.10 to $4.82 in the red at the settle. The cash market was shown at $171, which was $3-$4 weaker than last week. Feeders closed the futures trading session with 2.5% losses of $4.55 to $5.72. The 12/05 CME Feeder Cattle Index was $224.23, another 45 cent increase. 

Census data had October beef exports listed at 241.5 million lbs. That is above the 2.31.5 million lb export for September, but is down 20% from the same month last year. The season’s total was shown at 2.556 billion lbs, compared to 3 billion last year. 

USDA’s Wholesale Boxed Beef price report showed mixed quotes, as Choice continued lower with another $3.19 drop while Select bounced by 77 cents. The federally inspected cattle slaughter for the week reached 376k head through Wednesday. That is a 3k head increase from the week prior, but is down 2k head from the same week last year.

Dec 23 Cattle  closed at $163.450, down $5.050,

Feb 24 Cattle  closed at $163.550, down $5.425,

Apr 24 Cattle  closed at $166.675, down $4.825,

Jan 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $210.150, down $4.550

Mar 24 Feeder Cattle  closed at $211.750, down $5.725