At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live and feeder cattle ended the day lower, watching direct cash business develop. Feeders had additional pressure from the higher move in corn. April live cattle closed $.70 lower at $144.75 and June live cattle closed $1.27 lower at $141.12. March feeder cattle closed $1.45 lower at $162.77 and April feeder cattle closed $.85 lower at $168.27.
Direct cash cattle trade has been slow to develop this week. There were just a handful of deals reported in Iowa and Nebraska at $227 dressed and in Kansas at $142 live. Asking prices were firm at $144 to $145 live in the South and $230 plus dressed in the North. Those will likely be restated on Thursday. Look for significant trade volume to develop over the balance of the week.
At the Philip Livestock Auction in South Dakota, compared to last week feeder steers under 650 pounds were steady.
