auto - your comments re currency are very relevant and now the...

auto - your comments re currency are very relevant and now the dollar is weaker

just want to correct a couple things i said in a post or two - i wasnt sure if the figures were correct.

The panhandle value of a feedlot heavy steer in the table i referred to showed a big drop in future price - I understand that to be a fair indication of the future but even now they are prediting a $170 drop- the cattle on feed does seem to have grown in big numbers also (assuming it is right -see note below) -so just as well our currency is weakening!!

feeder steers prices seem to be bouncing up in the United States, so here is hoping that is a prediction of the fats improving again -even if only slightly.
Below is a comment from the aforementioned website agcenter:

"The players in the futures market also are not idiots. They are not solely basing their bet on the market prices based on the USDA reports of cattle on feed. They are also using information on feedyard occupancy and finding as USDA was reporting cattle on feed, those surveys were consistent with reports of full feedyards. Those making bets on the futures believe we will hit a wall of cattle between now and June.

Beef packers and retailers also are puzzled and have based many of their actions and decisions relying on the advent of large slaughter numbers. Yet slaughter numbers are barely keeping pace with last year and in order to process the assumed inventories must reach the mid 600 thousand weekly number soon. Packer margins are good to excellent and they are not holding back on slaughter levels from a lack of incentive.

So the cattle feeder has every incentive to market cattle early, and can be expected to do exactly that. The packer can be expected to slaughter all they can find and the retailers to plan beef features based on the arrival of the wall of cattle. This leaves the marketplace on hold while we discover the whereabouts of all those cattle."

make of that what you can - this same site has been casting doubt on the number of cattle on feed for a while -yet they state there is a wall of cattle coming, yet at present there is nowhere near the cattle available that there should be!!!

there is some mention of slaughter weights dropping- but still ahead of last year!! I was hoping with the cold weather they may have dropped off more!!