Agricultural News
Choice boxed beef prices and finished cattle trade ended higher for week ending February 23, 2013. - Audio with Ed Czerwien, USDA Market News Office, Amarillo, Texas
Mon, 25 Feb 2013 13:29:02 CST
Weekly boxed beef trade for week ending Feb 23, 2013.
In this week's beef report with Ed Czerwien, USDA Market News, Amarillo, Texas,
The daily spot Choice box beef cutout ended the week at 182.89 which was almost 1 dollar higher and traded in a very narrow range all week.
The Comprehensive Choice cutout, which is the weekly average of all types of sales (including the spot trade, formula trade, and out-front trade, etc,) was at 184.10, which was .4 lower but is still running slightly over the spot market.
The total reported Box Beef volume was 6620 loads which were 428 loads more than last week dismal numbers.
The out-front sales were slow also at 865 loads which were 190 loads lower than the previous week. Export reported 787 loads which was 69 loads better than the previous week.
The formula trade jumped the most and was 3282 loads for the week, which was 365 loads more than last week.
The most recent 10 week rolling Bx Bf sales average was 6528 loads per week which compares to almost 7129 loads per week last year at this same time and was the lowest 10 week load count since I started keeping track. It was lower than any week in 2008 or 2009. Like we have said in the past that difference of over 600 loads per week equates to approx. 36,000 head of cattle each and every week for 10 weeks that we did not get sold since it takes roughly 60-70 hd of live cattle to make up a load of box beef.
The Primal cut trade portion of the spot trade was weaker on all items except the loin primal. The outside primal cuts (Rounds and Chucks) were steady to 1 lwr. The middle meats (Ribs and Loins) were mixed with Ribs steady to 1 lwr and Loins 2-5 hgr.
The cow cutout ended the week steady to weak as the cow numbers continue to dwindle in many areas. The cow cutout has been very firm in light of the big declines on the Choice cutout which is further evidence of ground beef demand.
Click on the listening bar below for Ed Czerwein's report.
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