Sort and Cull

Does it feel as though July lasted an eternity while at the same time was here and gone in the blink of an eye? From a big 250th birthday celebration for our country, to significant positions being lost in both the live cattle and feeder cattle contracts and receiving news that the border to Mexican cattle imports will soon reopen, July was a lot to absorb. Now the market looks to August and ponders: What's in store for the cattle complex?

Thankfully, last week's market gave cattlemen some hope: The futures contracts trade higher, but so did the fed cash cattle market. Throughout last week's trade, August live cattle rallied $4.68, October live cattle rallied $4.75, August feeder cattle gained $2.70 and September feeder cattle gained $2.33, which was quite the refreshing turnaround given the fact that the feeder cattle contracts lost $32.13 from June 25 to July 22 and the live cattle contracts lost $35 from June 30 to July 22.

The market's support wasn't only from a technical standpoint; fed cash cattle prices traded higher, too. Last week, Southern live cattle traded at mostly $233, which is $3 higher than the previous week's weighted average. Northern dressed cattle traded at mostly $367 to $368, which is $2 to $3 higher than the previous week's weighted average.

But heading into this week's market, cattlemen and traders alike hope to see the market trade higher, though that will largely depend on what surfaces fundamentally. Feedlot managers are willing and ready to wait the week out and hopefully will be able to pressure packers into paying more money, but a lot of this week's success is going to rest on whether or not consumer demand is strong. It was encouraging for feedlot managers to see packers already offering bids of $233 on Monday, as that inevitably shows they're short bought and need more cattle.

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

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