Feeder Flash 5/7: Packers Slow Playing

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:05]I'm Corvett Wall with DV Auction here with your feeder flash for Thursday, May the 7th. Brought to you in part by Specialty Risk Insurance. That's Kevin Charleston's insurance company right there in Carthage, Missouri. They're a fullervice outfit, guys, and one of the top a business insurance agencies in the whole nation and quickly becoming the premier agency for construction and commercial insurance in the Midwest.

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[00:00:39]Packers slow playing. Uh I thought the the trade would take off on Wednesday.

[00:00:45]It didn't. uh the the negotiated fed cattle trade on a direct basis didn't take off yet. Packers acting like they don't need any cattle, but they've tipped their hand to everybody.

[00:00:55]Everybody knows how desperate they are for cattle. They bought cattle last week on Tuesday and had picked pretty much all of them up by the end of the week. I mean, they're they're desperate for cattle. They need them. They're going to have to get in here pretty quick. Uh and your Packers are are pretty much got their their feet dug in, especially the guys in the north. those guys in Nebraska and and for that part Iowa too.

[00:01:19]Uh some of those smaller lots along there, they know how quick those cattle are getting picked up. They know how short they are. They seem to be more dug in than the guys in the southern plains, but we'll see how it works out as it goes through. Didn't see anything uh on Wednesday. Just a little bit of trade on the on the fed cattle exchange and that was it. I'll tell you about that in a minute. Cooler temperatures on Wednesday, a lot cooler in some places.

[00:01:45]Even saw some snow in Colorado and New Mexico. It came as far south as u as Chris Earl's ranch there uh between Springer and Raton, New Mexico. Saw a video of his on social media there and it was snowing along there pretty good.

[00:02:00]But uh they'll take any form of moisture. It is dry, guys. It is seriously dry. And we haven't seemed to get been getting any of this moisture that's been coming across. say threatened rain on us a lot of times, but it just keeps going to South Texas and eastern Oklahoma and eastern Kansas there. But, uh, we're dry on the west sides of these states, guys. But, um, these these packers are going to get so short and they're going to start going like they did late last week, going to these feed lots and asking the feed lot managers, why aren't you showing me these cattle? Why don't you have these cattle on the list? Well, I don't think they're quite ready. They're ready.

[00:02:40]Price them to me. What do you think?

[00:02:42]They were doing that late last week.

[00:02:44]They're going to be doing that riding in the cattle trucks late this week if they let it go any longer, guys. But just sitting back acting like they don't need the cattle. The boardsman moderately higher every day. Uh but uh but the cattle feeders are still looking at a good basis. If they can get uh some prices similar to what they think they're going to get here this week, they could be looking at a $3 to $5 basis, which also uh really helps on those hedged cattle, guys. The feeder cattle getting cheaper in the sales. Not a lot cheaper, but they're just backing up a little bit, especially those bigger stalkers that they've been buying here all spring and buying them so high.

[00:03:23]those stalkers weighing in the sevens.

[00:03:25]They'll still give it all for some with the right condition and and uh really green, but they're not going after them like they were two or three weeks ago.

[00:03:35]I mentioned the outbreak and some of you people thought I was saying malaria.

[00:03:41]Well, no, I was talking about.

[00:03:44]I tell you what, it's brought on by Asian Longhorn tick and it is bad stuff.

[00:03:49]We need to get the word out on this and guys need to get to pulling blood when they see some cattle that are dying and they don't know why and they're not lungers guys. Uh they kind of kind of remind you of a anoplasma or something like that. Kind of a brain deal but uh they look fairly healthy right before they go down guys. But uh ask at your FSA office. They are paying a pretty big percentage on debts for those cuz they don't have anything to offer you as far as vaccination or treatment. But uh it is a is a bad deal. Guys, I tell you what, the beef export information come out for March and our beef exports for March were down 20% compared to a year ago and China accounted for about 80% of that reduction. Maybe if Trump goes over there and talks to uh PresidentQi here in the next couple of weeks, he can smooth him over on that. But uh but the whole administration and all the USDA is uh really going after your big four Packers guys. And and by good reason, I mean there we know there's reason that they need to be going after them, but like I said earlier this week, the timing is just absolutely terrible. I I saw where they were doing a a a Senate committee hearing there and they were talking about that and one of the uh one of the lawmakers were saying, you know, these these these cow cap producers just aren't getting paid for their cavs.

[00:05:16]Well, he hadn't looked at a a market report here recently cuz they're getting paid big time right now. But still, we need to look into it, but it would have been a easier case to to hold them to if guys weren't getting so much money for their cattle right now.

[00:05:32]Let's talk about the board for Wednesday. Your June live cattle futures were up a quarter at 25347.

[00:05:41]August was up 55 cents at 248.90.

[00:05:44]Those are minor increases, guys. We're used to talking about 2345.

[00:05:49]Your back months were down 22 cents to up 50 cents. So, not much change in your live cattle pits for the most part. May feeder cattle were up 57 cents at 37240.

[00:06:02]August was up 75 at 37305.

[00:06:05]Your back months on feeder cattle all higher up 52 to up 92 cents. Look at your grains for a minute. How about July corn? It was down 11 1/2 cents a bushel at 468 1/2. Beans for July down 16 and 3/4 cent at 1194 and 3/4. and hardbred winter wheat for July down 3 cents a bushel at 687.

[00:06:27]Look at your fat cattle trade and not much of it on a negotiated basis. Didn't have any direct trade in your five area feeding region. We did see the fed cattle exchange have their first sale uh of the week. That's your online trading platform through central stockyards, guys. They had several cattle offered on there. Uh did sell a group of cattle in Texas. There were 300 of them sold on the Fed cattle exchange at 256.

[00:06:53]Now, that might be disappointing cuz we were all talking about 260 here earlier this week, but that 256 is a dollar higher than last week's weighted average. So, we're still going in the right direction, guys. But, uh, give you a couple of fat cattle auctions I had up in the Midwest, the Northern Plains. Sou Falls Regional Livestock in Worththing, South Dakota had 900 head for their slaughter cattle auction. Market was steady to firm on fed cattle.

[00:07:21]Conventional fed cattle selling from 254 1/2 to 262.

[00:07:26]Program cattle, non-implanted or drug-free, selling from 258 1/2 to 260.

[00:07:32]So no premium there for those. Uh they did have holen steers, fat holene steers selling from 224 to 233.

[00:07:41]They also had a fat cattle auction up the road at Glacial Lakes Livestock in Watertown, South Dakota had 700 head there. Fed cattle sold steady.

[00:07:50]Conventional fed cattle selling from 250 to 256. Program cattle there selling from 255 to 260. Uh dairy cattle or Holene selling from 220 to 230. And Holene beef cross uh fat steer selling from 249 to 252. big fat fed cows selling from a buck 80 to $2. How about your box beef cutout values? They were lower. And I don't know. I mean, they what causes that? You know, they basically just put out a menu with uh with all the cuts on there and what they're priced at and the wholesalers just buy what they need. How it could be down that much when nothing's really happened. Maybe the cooler temperatures maybe don't think they're going to sell that much for this weekend's clearance of the shelves. But choice cuts were down 272 at 38962.

[00:08:43]Selects were down 261 at 38963.

[00:08:47]Your slaughter up through the first 3 days of the week estimated cattle slaughter was 313,000.

[00:08:54]That was uh that was 11,000 less than last week at this time.

[00:09:00]It was uh 34,000 less in the same week a year ago. Uh so it was lighter. We're going to have the lightest May slaughter on history, guys, since they've been keeping track of that stuff. It's just it's just barely barely those chain speeds are barely creeping, but and they're not getting many cattle in there to slaughter anyway. So, we're just not getting much output. Let's talk about your uh what else is going on? Vitalix tubs, guys. How about increasing feed efficiency, lowering feed costs, increasing conception rates, improving herd health overall, improving average daily gain, and improving weaning weights, all with Vitalix tubs, guys.

[00:09:43]For more information, go to vitalix.com.

[00:09:46]Also, I want to tell you about the special cow sale at Callaway Livestock Center in Kingdom City, Missouri. It's tonight, guys, this evening. And at 5:00 they're going to start with the Wheeler Angus uh bull sale. They're going to have about 30 bulls there, 12 to 16 months old. They'll be top top quality guys, all registered deal. Then at 6:00 they're going to go with their regular special regular special cow sale, but the special cow sale that they usually have once a month there at Callaway, it's going to start at 6:00. They're going to have over a thousand head.

[00:10:19]They'll have some breeding bulls there uh to start that sale, too. and they're going to get started on a really fancy offering. 150 fancy black first calf heer pairs will be coming in there, guys. Those are hard to find. How about 70 big fancy black and black baldi bred heers bred to Wall Street Angus bulls and ready to pop right now. They're they're come they're they're they're coming right now with their caves, guys.

[00:10:47]A lot of them are probably have cavs on them by sale time, but uh they're going to have 150 running age pairs, guys.

[00:10:55]They're going to have 500 fall bred cows. Going to have 100 uh heavy bred cows. Then they've got some um older fall breads, too, guys. But that'd be a good sale there. Check into them. Check it out. And get on dvauction.com.

[00:11:11]Call the sale barn there a little bit early. Make sure you're approved to bid.

[00:11:15]sit back and enjoy that sale and get in on them some of them if you like them.

[00:11:19]How about uh your feeder cattle market brought to you by Specialty Risk Insurance working to protect your livelihood guys. Your real time index from DV auction late in the day on Wednesday after your sales concluded sitting at 37217.

[00:11:35]That was down 173. So been down pretty sizable the last couple of days. Those guys are just easing off of them. But uh your latest CME cash feeder cattle index sitting at 37519.

[00:11:49]Of course, it's not up to date. It won't catch up for another day and a half or two. Talk about some big sales that are going to be happen here on Thursday.

[00:11:57]Stockman's Livestock Exchange in Dickinson, North Dakota. They're having a big sale with a lot of grass cattle there in that sale, guys. You can check that out if you're looking for some grassers there. And then Valentine, Nebraska, Valentine livestock auctions got a big offering here today on Thursday, too. You can check both of those sales out at dvauction.com.

[00:12:19]Let's talk about your big sales that happened on Wednesday.

[00:12:22]Of course, OKC West and Elno, Oklahoma, they had a big feeder and calf sales this week. It was on Tuesday's calf sales and Wednesday's feeder sale. Had 11,100 head all together. Biggest sale in the country, guys. Feeder steers on Wednesday over 850 pounds were unevenly steady. Uh those feeder steers under eight and a half were selling $3 to $8 lower. Feeder heers over 750 were steady to five lower while your uh feeder heers under 7 1/2 were selling $8 to 12 lower.

[00:12:55]And that would encompass a lot of those stalker types too guys. Steer cavs on Tuesday sold 5 to $15 lower. Heer cavs on Tuesday sold steady to $10 lower.

[00:13:06]going to be showing you the uh uh the the feeder sale at OKC West for the Wednesday feeder sale. They had about 8,800 head of feeders, guys. That was the uh the lion share of their receipts there, guys. They were your uh superior steel sales, home of superior standard livestock equipment stickout sale of the day. You look at this automated marker report through Cattle Market Central, and you can see your best tested weights there. And I'll give you the weighted averages for them. They had 308 six weightight steers averaged 673 at 41269.

[00:13:41]804 head of the seven weightight steers averaged 758 at 37545.

[00:13:48]There were 1763 8W weightight steers in El Reno. Wow.

[00:13:53]They averaged 853 with a weighted average price of 358.887.472 1472 head of the 9ineweight steers average 935 at 34326.

[00:14:07]321 head of the light 10 weight steers average 1021 at 32145 and 174 of the heavy 10 weights averaged 1066 at 30991.

[00:14:20]Let's look at some of the heers. They had 454 head of the sixeight heers.

[00:14:25]averaged 664 at 36602 at 1,062 head of the 7weight heers they average 761 at 34798652 head of the 8weight heers at Elno averaged 838 at 33287 and 410 head of the nineweight heers OKC West averaged 921 with a weighted average price of 31988. 8. Give you some other individual quotes from all over I thought were impressive. How about Sydney livestock in Sydney, Montana?

[00:15:02]They sold 92 steer cavs weighed 524.

[00:15:06]They bring 540 a pound, guys. How about Stockman's Livestock Market in Yankton for their feeder cattle sale? 171 big feeder steers weighed 1,06 lb bring 346.

[00:15:20]Wow, it's a big price. One of my favorite South Central Regional Stockyards in Vienna, Missouri. The Patton family there, good friends of mine. They sold 80 steer caves that weighed 511 and bring 558.

[00:15:35]That's getting up there. How about Basset Livestock Auction in Basset, Nebraska? 85 steers weighed 626 at 47350.

[00:15:45]Nothing to sneeze at. But the most impressive quote that I saw anywhere on Wednesday in your macroin no BS top quote for the day come out of Hub City Livestock in Aberdine, South Dakota with 70 steers that weighed 824 bring 39350.

[00:16:02]That's your feeder flash for Thursday.