Chicago feeder cattle contracts surged on Thursday. Live cattle and lean hogs also made healthy gains.
Most-active April live cattle closed at 238.425 cents a pound, up 1.100 cents. February live cattle gained 0.900 cents to settle at 236.050 cents per pound.
Most-active March feeder cattle futures gained 4.850 cents to close at 364.550 cents a pound. April contracts settled at 362.925 cents a pound, up 4.750 cents.
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Choice boxed beef was valued at $360.77 per cwt, up $2.24. Select beef gained $2.06 to close at $359.71 per cwt according to the USDA’s afternoon report.
“Cattle feeders are believed having to compete with the excessive amount of production capacity available to all of those outside of cattle feeding,” wrote analyst Chris Swift.
“Pastures of all kinds are abundant, and from Monday’s WASDE report, feedstuffs are not in short supply. So, backgrounders are believed having to shift in production schemes to buy whatever is available and attempt to put some pounds on and hope the price continues to move higher.”
Most-active February lean hog futures rose 2.100 cents to settle at 87.800 cents a pound. April lean hogs closed at 95.000 cents a pound, up 2.300 cents.
The USDA reported pork carcass cutout value at $93.60 per cwt, up $2.31.
