CattleLink Market View

Live cattle: Throughout most of last week, the live cattle complex traded in a stronger manner, except on Thursday, when news broke that the union representing plant workers had elected to strike at the JBS plant in Greeley, Colorado. However, the market has recovered since then with the help of strong fundamentals, as Southern live cattle traded at $242 to $245, which is $3 to $6 higher than the previous week’s weighted average, and Northern dressed cattle traded at mostly $378, which is $1 higher than the previous week’s weighted average.

Feeder cattle: The feeder cattle complex continues to closely follow the live cattle market’s mannerisms and is mostly trading in the same direction, as the market’s long-term fundamentals are strong and supplies are historically thin.

Lean hogs: Last week, the lean hog complex scaled higher until topping out just shy of $99 in the spot April contract. Even though the futures complex ran into some new resistance, pork demand has remained incredibly strong.

Corn: March corn futures finished last week up 2 cents but finished 1 1/2 cents lower Monday to settle at $4.28 3/4, pressured by better rain chances in Argentina.

Soybean Meal: March soybean meal futures rallied $10 per ton last week and fell on Monday by $5.80 to end the day at $297.80.