Prices continue slide in weekly canfax cattle marketing report

The latest weekly Cattle Market report shows that prices are continuing to decline across virtually all weight categories for the week ending October 22, 2021.

According to Canfax numbers, 48,823 head of cattle were sold in the province, up more than double from the 21,018 sold last week and well higher than the 39,920 head sold in the same week last year as well.

Looking at the price per hundredweight, feeder steers took a fairly significant drop across virtually every weight category except in the 400-500 lb category, which saw its price rise of $1.33 for a $240.40 average and a 225-227 range. The largest decline came in the 700-800 lb weight category, which sunk $4.23 to an average of $195.71 per hundred-weight (CWT)

Feeder heifers saw a similar drop, this time across all weight categories, with the 300-400 lb category taking the largest hit, dropping $6.43 to end the week at an average of $202.45 CWT.

Meanwhile, nearby feeder cattle futures continued their decline to end the week. They'd drop $2.15 per CWT to end the week at $156.43. The January contract would drop $4.20 per CWT to settle at $157.33.

Live cattle futures suffered a similar fate, trending downward to end the week. October futures dipped $1.875 per CWT to settle on Friday at $124.100, while the December contract saw a price drop of $2.650 per CWT to end at $128.325.

Prices of live, non-fed cattle in Alberta were lower, week-over-week. The price of D2 slaughter cows saw a noticeable price decline of $5.88 per cwt from the previous week to an average of $69.92 per cwt; while the price of D3 slaughter cows saw a larger price decline of $6.71 per cwt from the previous week to average $59.36 per cwt.

Choice beef cutout prices (600-900 lb.) for the week averaged US$280.70 per cwt, up slightly (US$0.15 per cwt) from US$280.55 per cwt the previous week. The choice beef cutout value is still 34.3 percent higher than the same week a year ago when it was valued at $209.03.