Not only are the nation’s slaughter plants beginning to increase the number of head they’re processing, but cattle prices seemed to have bottomed out and are generally increasing as well. USDA Livestock Analyst Shayle Shagum said 750 to 800 pound of feeders back in April 2019, a year ago, were fetching 146 dollars a hundred weight. This April, prices skidded to an average of only $121.

"Now, when we look at the most recent feeder cattle auctions, feeder cattle in the same weight range were averaging  about $130 cwt," Shagum said. "So they have moved up off variable lows."

Fed cattle up from their low average of $102 up to $116.

"So we have seen some recovery in cattle prices," he noted.

Shagum added the industry is certainly not at pre-Covid levels but at least are heading in a a positive direction.


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