The U.S. report for cattle on feed for September first was six per cent higher than a year ago according to Anne Wasko, of Gateway Livestock. And that’s something, as it was a bit bigger of a number than what the industry was expecting.
“It’s because the August placement number was up seven per cent from a year ago, and the market was expecting plus four. Marketings in August were about the same of last year,” she says.
It could, however, have a bit of a bearish tendency for the futures on Monday (September 24), adding that futures over the last 10 days are having a pretty good run as they moved back into higher territory.
Wasko says, “The guess on the marketing was up one, so the fact that it was unchanged wasn’t a big deal. Now we’re getting into that time in 2018 (August, September, October), where, this time last year is where those big numbers started to come at us, and we’ve been marketing large numbers ever since.”
Adding to that, year-over-year changes on marketing aren’t going to be as big or as impressive as some of the numbers cattlemen saw coming in May, June, and July. She says it was also a very busy placement month in August, as in Western Canada it was up 19 per cent largely due to the drought.
In the Beef Market Update below, Wasko points out a bright side within the demand equation: the future markets have been trying to signal to cattle producers they’re moving higher, as they start to get closer to fourth quarter.
She says futures market are expecting good demand to continue, and that now we could see the cash markets follow through with some strength going forward.
For the full breakdown on the beef market this past week, listen below.
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