Cattle rally with the bullish placements number at 88% in the Cattle on Feed report and after steady cash in the south according to Brad Kooima of Kooima Kooima Varilek.
State by state breakouts on placements show cattle are moving from the South to the North. With Texas placements at only 80%, Kansas and Colorado at only 87%, while Iowa placements were at 96% and Nebraska was at 94%.
Kooima says this report also provides the quarterly breakouts and shows there is still a record number of heifers being placed in feedlots to be finished.
The marketings number was also below expectations at only 86% but Kooima attributes that to two less marketing days in the month and he thinks cattle are being held and finished to heavier weights.
Cash cattle trade was steady in the South last week at $182 but a bit weaker in the North with dressed prices at $292 which was $1 lower on a weighted average with some $183-$184 live sales.
What will cash do this week? Kooima thinks its possible numbers are tight enough that cash could break the lower trend of the last four weeks and trade higher.
There was also a fire at a cow kill plant in Gibbons, Nebraska. It was in the rendering department and will mean the plant will be down for Monday and Tuesday. However, Kooima says with the tight cow numbers this isn’t a concern.
Hogs fail to see follow through buying Monday after the chart breakout Friday.
Grains rally led by the wheat market on weather concerns in the U.S. with some cold temperatures over the weekend in HRW country. However, it was most notable with frost over the weekend in Northern Europe from France through the UK, Poland and Western Ukraine.
That and short covering seem to be supporting the corn market and trying to pull soybeans along as well.
However, Kooima says corn has stronger demand and a higher seasonal pattern in its favor.
