Agricultural News
Boxed Beef Cutout Starting to Top Out, Normal for Late January
Mon, 18 Jan 2016 17:03:41 CST
On a regular basis, Ed Czerwein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Market News Office in Amarillo, Texas offers a review of the previous week's boxed beef trade. Here is the weekly boxed beef trade for week ending January 16th. The daily spot Choice boxed beef cutout ended the week last Friday at $232.47, which was 27 cents higher compared to previous week but it had been over $235 all week except on Friday when it started to collapse. This daily spot Choice cutout had jumped $44 up to that $235 figure in a little less than three weeks. There were 573 loads sold for the week in the daily boxed beef cutout. The daily cutout has skyrocketed up since right before Christmas as retailers made the big switch from hams and turkeys back to beef which is normal seasonal change. However the decline that began late last week is also a normal seasonal change that usually runs until late in February.
The comprehensive or weekly average Choice cutout, which includes all types of sales including the daily spot cutout, was $223.30 which was $7.24 higher. The weekly average Choice cutout lags behind the daily Choice movement and stair steps up or down following the daily cutout because of the much larger volume for formula and out front sales. The daily cutout normally ranges from eight to 12 percent of total sales so it has less impact on the weekly average. Also many formulas are based off of the previous week's spot prices so it is just a minor weekly lag behind the spot prices.
There were 6,091 total loads sold which were 284 loads higher than the previous week. The formula sales were at 3,407 loads which was 26 loads lower than last week and it was 56 percent of the total loads sold this week.
Exports as reported on the Boxed Beef report represent primarily muscle cuts and were 552 loads, which was 105 higher. North American Free Trade Agreement neighbors purchased 141 loads and 411 loads were shipped overseas. The out-front sales which won't be delivered for at least 22 days were 923 loads, which was 314 loads higher than last week. This is one of the larger numbers recently and the biggest products reported were almost 2 million pounds of round products whose average prices were 17 to 29 below cur form averages. Brisket average prices $30 to $48 below current form, ribeyes at $31- $33 below cur formulas and almost a million pounds of loin products prices $12 to $13 below average form prices. Keep in mind the average form prices well below spot prices. Taking a look at the weekly average primal cut prices, the rib started to decline and the rest showed improvement again this week. The Choice middle meats the rib was two lower and the loin was nine higher. The Choice chuck and round primals were six to nine higher as demand improved after the holidays.
The daily Cow Cutout was $1.88 higher for the week on Friday at $163.98. Those 90 percent trimmings ended the week at $203.25 which was $3.84 higher. Slaughter cow prices started to improve after the two holiday weeks of very small numbers but did start to decline in the Southern Plains after the blizzard because of very large numbers of dairy cows with frozen bags and other health issues moving to packing plants.
The latest report of imported meat passed for entry into the US for week ending January 9 showed that week the U.S. imported 18,120 metric tons of fresh beef which was about 7,000 metric tons higher than the previous week. Year-to-date total tonnage was 26 percent below last year. Australia was down 42 percent and New Zealand was down 31 percent compared to last year but Canada was up 21 percent and Mexico was up ten percent.
Click on the LISTEN BAR below to listen to Ed's comments about the weekly boxed beef trade.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
