Agricultural News
Choice boxed beef prices and finished cattle trade ended lower for week ending February 16, 2013. - Audio with Ed Czerwien, USDA Market News Office, Amarillo, Texas
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:27:46 CST
In this week's beef report with Ed Czerwien, the daily spot Choice box beef cutout ended the week at 181.95 which was only about 20 cents lower than the previous Friday, but had shown about 1.5 improvement during the middle of the week then lost it on Friday.
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 184.50, which was .8 lower but is still running over the spot market.
The total reported Box Beef volume was 6192 loads which were 713 loads less than last week and the worst non holiday volume since July of 2009. Only the last Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Yr wks were worse. Especially low when you consider that we have taken about 10 off the cutout since December.
The out-front sales were slow also at 1055 loads which were 176 loads lower than the previous week. Last week's big news for export sales turned sour as exports dropped almost in half to a total of only 718 loads.
The formula trade was 2917 loads for the week, which was 37 loads less than last week and two weeks back to back sales of less than 3000 loads which is very unusual.
The most recent 10 week rolling Bx Bf sales average was 6594 loads per week which compares to almost 7300 loads per week last year at this same time. That a 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 to70 head of live cattle to make up a load of box beef.
The Primal cut trade portion of the spot trade was mixed and uneven with some cuts showing improvement and others declines. The outside primal cuts (Rounds and Chucks) were 3 lwr to 3 hgr. The middle meats, Ribs and Loins, were mixed also 3 lwr to 3 hgr and the fifty percent trimmings gained about 3 dollars.
The cow cutout ended the week firm to almost 2 higher as the ongoing demand for the lean 90 percent trimmings and ground product at grocery stores continues to be a big factor in the market.
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