Sort & Cull

Cattle Sales Manager and well-known auctioneer Ty Thompson, of Billings Livestock Auction, said it best: "Markets are nothing more than an attitude." Thankfully, the attitude backing the cattle complex is a strong one right now!

Pinpointing what attitude the cattle complex will run with can be challenging, as the market's fundamentals and technical factors do not always align for the same trajectory. Thankfully, the cash cattle market has traded higher during the last seven weeks, boxed beef demand remains incredibly strong, and packers seem to indicate they're going to ramp up chain speeds in the weeks ahead. This influenced the cattle complex to shake Friday's Cattle on Feed report, as both cattle and traders alike found more merit in the market's fundamentals than in the report's findings.

Last week's trade was powerful for the cattle complex as Southern live cattle traded at mostly $190 -- $2 higher than the previous week's weighted average. Northern dressed cattle traded at mostly $298, also $2 higher than the previous week's weighted average. Consumers also helped support the cattle complex, as last week choice cuts averaged $322.33 (up $4.49 from the previous week) and select cuts averaged $295.24 (up $2.98 from the previous week). The week's total movement of cuts, grinds and trim totaled 672 loads. And the icing on the cake is the week's slaughter total was estimated at 623,000 head -- the highest weekly number slaughtered since the first week in February.

I remain optimistic about the week ahead as, thankfully, the market's fundamentals seem to be aligning for widespread support and encouragement. The stumbling blocks that could lay ahead for the market in the days to come are the fact that packers were able to get a lot of cattle bought last week in the cash market -- 98,023 head, of which 23% were committed to the deferred delivery -- and pre-election jitters could begin to settle into the marketplace at any time.

But even so, the market's attitude remains strong and committed, which is why I believe the complex could have another impressive week ahead of it this week.

ShayLe Stewart can be reached at shayle.stewart@dtn.com

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