56 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN August 2024 PEERS MOVING PARTS JEFF STOLLE | NC VICE PRESIDENT OF MARKETING As I write this, Nebraska’s dressed fed cattle market is coming off what appears to be a fifth week out of the past seven featuring a new, all-time high Livestock Mandatory Reporting (LMR) Nebraska dressed steer weighted average data point. The bulk of NC Marketing Reporting Service sales confirmed to major buyers during the holiday-shortened first business week of July took place at $314 dressed, fully $2 stronger than the lion’s share of the business done by the bigger players during the last week of June. Finding firm, underlying support from tightening overall finished cattle inventories following more than three years of aggressive liquidation of beef cow inventories, and bolstered by a counter-seasonal product market rally through late June and into early July, negotiated sellers along the I-80/I-29 corridors have seen patience “pay” for three consecutive Fridays – the last one of those being the Friday after Independence Day. This looks to be a second consecutive year of a late June/early July “spring top” for the boxed beef trade. I suggested to a long-time acquaintance that Independence Day has become the new Memorial Day from a holiday-focused beef demand standpoint. I found his observation in response to my comment to be quite interesting. He told me he’d talked to a number of folks involved in the beef (product) trade who had mentioned how the U.S. family summer travel season has essentially been compressed into the 60+/- days of June and July, following the trend over the past few years of schools closing later and opening sooner. I glanced at my daughter’s school schedule for the coming year – she starts classes on Aug. 12 and her last day of class is not until May 30 (four days after Memorial Day). Maybe July 4 is the new Memorial Day. Let’s delve a little deeper into an interesting fed cattle market anomaly that’s been in place for the past few months. (Chart 1: Steer Dressed Weight.) If I told you that the nationwide average steer C-S-18 06/28/24 ϴϱϬ ϴϲϬ ϴϳϬ ϴϴϬ ϴϵϬ ϵϬϬ ϵϭϬ ϵϮϬ ϵϯϬ ϵϰϬ ϵϱϬ : E WZ :h> K d WŽƵŶĚƐ Chart 1: STEER DRESSED WEIGHT &ĞĚĞƌĂůůLJ /ŶƐƉĞĐƚĞĚ͕ tĞĞŬůLJ ǀŐ͘ ϮϬϭϴͲϮϮ ϮϬϮϯ ϮϬϮϰ ĂƚĂ ^ŽƵƌĐĞ͗ h^ Ͳ D^ Θ h^ ͲE ^^ >ŝǀĞƐƚŽĐŬ DĂƌŬĞƚŝŶŐ /ŶĨŽƌŵĂƚŝŽŶ ĞŶƚĞƌ CONTINUED ON PAGE 58 1/4 Horizontal Nebraska Cattleman Full color Galllagher August 2022 We are experts. Our advisors understand your business and work hard to protect it. Omaha, Neb. 800.279.2081
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTMxNTA5