Fat cattle futures are trading withing 30 cents of UNCH at midday. save for April and June ’21 contracts which are up 65 cents. Feeder cattle futures are trading lower, down 30 to 77 cents so far. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was $142.58 on 9/29, back up by 22 cents. Cash sales on Wednesday were all over the board, USDA reported live sales from $104 to $108, and $165 to $169 dressed basis. The bulk of reported sales so far is $106-$107. Beef export sales were a 9-week high of 24,681 MT. Japan was the top purchaser on the week. The weekly report had beef shipments at 16,585 MT for the week ending 9/24. Accumulated beef exports were 0.75% ahead of last year’s pace with 598,742 MT. Wholesale boxed beef prices were up again this morning. Choice boxes were 84 cents higher, and Select boxes were up 89 cents. Federally inspected cattle slaughter for the week through Wednesday was 358,000 head. That trails last week’s pace by 3k head, but is up 5,000 from the same week last year.

--- provided by Brugler Marketing & Management