Dr. Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist, offers his economic analysis of the beef cattle industry as part of the weekly series known as the “Cow Calf Corner” published electronically by Dr. Peel and Mark Johnson. Today, Dr. Peel talks about fed cattle prices.
The daily 5-Market negotiated cash fed cattle price reported on Thursday, April 6, 2023, by the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, was $172.33/cwt., a new record daily fed cattle price. This was followed on Friday with at price of $175.87/cwt. The previous record daily price was $172.08/cwt. on November 26, 2014.
Where do fed prices go from here? In a steady market, fed prices would typically peak seasonally about now and move lower through the third quarter before increasing to the end of the year. This sort of typical pattern is currently priced into the Live Futures with futures prices decreasing from the nearby April (currently just over $171/cwt.) to June (about $163/cwt.) and August ($162/cwt.) before increasing in the October contract ($166/cwt.) and December ($171/cwt.). At this time, Live Futures prices do not exceed nearby levels until the February 2024 contract (currently $174/cwt.).