Row crops recovered on a technical bounce and with lower crop ratings.
Corn and soybeans both saw a deterioration of conditions by 2% with the Eastern Corn Belt too dry and the Western Corn Belt too wet.
Live cattle futures set back a second day after hitting new near-term highs Monday and failing even though cash was at record levels.
However, Brad Kooima of Kooima Kooima Varilek says he knows of some cash trade as high as $198 in the North and a small regional paid $200, so it was a historical week and is an indication of how tight the numbers are in those areas which gives those producers leverage.
“Compare that to the South which was mostly $186 with some $188 late.”
Feeder cattle futures consolidated with higher corn, but he thinks the live cattle futures correction is just routine profit taking. “I think the challenge in a market like we had on Friday is what do you do for an encore? Do you expect cash is going to be $3 to $5 higher every day? Well clearly that’s not going to happen. So, you’ll have some people saying, I’m going to take the opportunity to take a little money.”
He says he was still encouraged that even on a down day in live cattle the forward spreads were working with the front months stronger than the back months.
The market is gearing up for a Cattle on Feed Report on Friday and even with bullish expectations there is often times caution by the trade prior to the numbers.
