The daily spot Choice box beef cutout ended the week on Friday Mar 12 at 225.87 which was $5.46 lower compared to previous Friday. Last year it was 208.14 on the same Friday which was $ 0.67 higher, so still much higher than last year yet even though it dropped about 15 lower during the last two weeks. However, last year the following week saw the very big 45 dollar jump higher for the medical epidemic.
The end of this week the daily chuck and round primals were 4 to 7 lower. The daily Choice rib and loin primal were 6 to 9 lower but we are approaching the grilling season so the rib and loin should firm up and they are still higher than last year now. The weekly total for the daily cutout was 627 loads and about 9 % of the weekly total loads sold.
A good news item lately was a 20 lbs drop in steer carcass weights during the last two reported weeks so that along with the fact that a year ago during April had small slaughter cattle volume because of plant closures at the beginning of the medical epidemic. Those current lighter weights along with much bigger volume soon will plow thru a lot more cattle compared to last year in April and the feedlots will be more current with fewer backed up cattle soon.
The weekly average Choice cutout which includes all types of sales including the daily Choice cutout was 227.90 which was only $2.81 lower but last year was 206.33. The previous week the daily Choice cutout dropped over 9 dollars lower, so the weekly average is following the daily cutout slowly which is always normal because many but not all formula sales are priced off of the previous week’s daily spot prices. The formula sales are always the biggest portion of the weekly total loads sold and usually around 50 percent.
There were 7056 total loads sold for the week which was 471 loads higher than the previous week and helped by the exports as well as the out-front sales. This increase is finally starting to push the Four week moving average graph slightly higher but still much lower than last year now so the sales volume has not been good lately after being higher for a while.
The out-front sales which get delivered after 21 days were 1797 loads which was 291 loads higher than last week. The largest out-front sales this week included about 2 million lbs of Choice loin products and 1 million lbs of tenderloins that were 30 -80 dollars per cwt lower priced than the same current formula prices so the grilling season sales are starting but slightly lower priced.
The exports as reported on the Box Beef report were 1139 loads which was very good and 283 loads higher compared to the previous week, so these which were almost twice the volume of the daily sales and helped the weekly average cutout from dropping lower. This week 129 loads were sold to our NAFTA neighbors and 1010 loads were going overseas.
Formula sales were at 3247 loads which was 41 loads lower than last week and about 46 percent of the total loads sold this week. The formula sales included about 2 millions lbs of ribeye products along with 1.6 million lbs of Choice loin strips so steak products are starting to increase in volume.
Taking a look at the major primal cuts which impact the cutout value. The weekly average Choice Chuck and Round primal were steady to 2 lower and still higher than last year yet, however last year then jumped quite a bit higher during the early medical problem. The massive working problems and layoffs during the medical epidemic has pushed retail sales for these cheaper products.
The weekly average Choice Rib primal was 10 lower and the weekly average Choice Loin was 6 lower and no doubt impacted by the out-front sales. However, both of these are getting into the time of the year when the barbeque season rally takes place, so they should start to improve more soon. Last year also saw the very big jump higher during the plant shut downs for the medical epidemic.
The daily cow cutout ended the week on Friday March 12 was $ 0.35 higher at 188.33 and the 90% trimmings were at 233.41 which was $ 0.42 higher compared to the previous Friday.
The latest report of Imported meat passed for entry into the U.S. for week ending Mar 06 showed 18,948 metric tons of fresh beef which was about 170 lower than the previous week and about 1500 lower than last year. The year to date total for these imports is 8 % lower than last year. The top 4 countries are Canada which is number one and is 10 % higher than last year, Mexico is the second highest but 7 % lower than last year, New Zealand is 16 % higher, and Australia which is 45 % lower.
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