Week ending Oct. 6, 2023

Fed, feeder and stocker calf prices trended lower during October’s first full week of trade. Fed cattle traded at $1 lower to close the week, with northern trade down from $184 to $183. Southern trade was down from $183 to $182. The national average for feeder steers closed the week at $250.40, down $2.85 from week opening. Stocker steers also followed suit, closing $1.23 lower than last week at $282.97.

Live cattle and feeder cattle futures saw a reduction in values. Live cattle reductions ranged from $1.13 to $1.73 over the front three months of trade. Feeder cattle futures saw even steeper declines in the October, November and January markets, with decreases ranging from $4.08 to $4.23.

The box beef cutout also saw changes in last week’s trade. The Choice cutout closed trade at $302.01 — $1.23 higher than week opening. However, the Select cutout closed at $275.78, $.26 lower than week-opening. This led the Choice/Select spread to increase $1.49 to $26.23.

Slaughter cow values followed the same trends as the feeder and fed cattle markets. Cutter cow cutout values were down $1.30 to $237.81, with trade value on slaughter cows down $3 to $5.

Total volume of both feeder and fed cattle marketed last week saw decreases from the number marketed the previous week. The total volume of feeder calves marketed was 245,800 head —down 40,600 animals from the previous week. Total fed cattle marketed decreased from 69,756 animals to 62,096 last week.

Corn trade closed up for the week. Omaha corn closed at $4.78, up $.06. December futures for corn closed at $4.92, up $.15.

Another point of interest, crude oil futures closed the week at $82.79, down from $90.79. This brought the value near the 5-year average which rests at $82.85.