DAILY CATTLE MARKET BRIEFING
Saturday, October 24, 2026
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1. MARKET SENTIMENT: BULLISH - 7 out of 10
Supply tightness is the main driver. Friday's Cattle on Feed report showed record-low September placements and marketings, and cash cattle are being held for higher bids. Packer margins, a softer cutout and a consumer price ceiling keep this from a higher score. Friday's futures settled before the report was released, so the market's real reaction comes Monday.
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2. KEY PRICE TRENDS
Fed cattle (cash)
- Packer bids of $228 live in the South were passed. Sellers want at least $230 in the North and higher in the South.
- Bids of $225 live and $358 dressed in the North were also passed. A few Texas cattle traded at $230 before the COF report.
- Last week's trade was $227 live in the North and $228 in the South, with dressed at $350-355. That put the North up $3-7 and the South up $2.
- USDA called negotiated trade mostly inactive on light demand in Nebraska and the Western Cornbelt (581 head confirmed, versus 29,471 a week ago).
- Formula net dressed price averaged $361.51 on 955 lb carcasses (26,900 head).
Live cattle futures (Friday settlements)
- October: 229.87 (+0.12)
- December: 231.12 (unchanged)
- February: 233.35 (-0.10)
- October live cattle is up about $2.32 on the week.
Feeder cattle futures
- October: 348.32 (+2.22)
- November: 348.12 (+1.20)
- January: 345.35 (+1.35)
- October feeders are up about $4.70 on the week.
- The CME Feeder Index was 345.09 (+1.52). The June 26 high was 381.86.
Boxed beef
- Choice cutout: 365.79 (-3.68). The previous Friday it was 372.31.
- Select: 352.69 (+2.28).
- The Choice/Select spread narrowed to $13.10.
- Ribs hit another all-time weekly high on retailers' holiday front-running. Many other primals, trims and grinds are running below year-ago.
Packer margins and slaughter
- HedgersEdge estimated the Wednesday margin at $32.15 per head, versus $99.65 a week ago. Margins are narrowing fast after packers ra
Saturday, October 24, 2026
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
1. MARKET SENTIMENT: BULLISH - 7 out of 10
Supply tightness is the main driver. Friday's Cattle on Feed report showed record-low September placements and marketings, and cash cattle are being held for higher bids. Packer margins, a softer cutout and a consumer price ceiling keep this from a higher score. Friday's futures settled before the report was released, so the market's real reaction comes Monday.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
2. KEY PRICE TRENDS
Fed cattle (cash)
- Packer bids of $228 live in the South were passed. Sellers want at least $230 in the North and higher in the South.
- Bids of $225 live and $358 dressed in the North were also passed. A few Texas cattle traded at $230 before the COF report.
- Last week's trade was $227 live in the North and $228 in the South, with dressed at $350-355. That put the North up $3-7 and the South up $2.
- USDA called negotiated trade mostly inactive on light demand in Nebraska and the Western Cornbelt (581 head confirmed, versus 29,471 a week ago).
- Formula net dressed price averaged $361.51 on 955 lb carcasses (26,900 head).
Live cattle futures (Friday settlements)
- October: 229.87 (+0.12)
- December: 231.12 (unchanged)
- February: 233.35 (-0.10)
- October live cattle is up about $2.32 on the week.
Feeder cattle futures
- October: 348.32 (+2.22)
- November: 348.12 (+1.20)
- January: 345.35 (+1.35)
- October feeders are up about $4.70 on the week.
- The CME Feeder Index was 345.09 (+1.52). The June 26 high was 381.86.
Boxed beef
- Choice cutout: 365.79 (-3.68). The previous Friday it was 372.31.
- Select: 352.69 (+2.28).
- The Choice/Select spread narrowed to $13.10.
- Ribs hit another all-time weekly high on retailers' holiday front-running. Many other primals, trims and grinds are running below year-ago.
Packer margins and slaughter
- HedgersEdge estimated the Wednesday margin at $32.15 per head, versus $99.65 a week ago. Margins are narrowing fast after packers ra
For more detailed information or specific market data, please contact your local extension office or market analyst.