February 26, 2007

February US cattle slaughter on pace to top 2006 by 8.5 percent

February US cattle slaughter is on pace to top the year-ago figure by about 8.5 percent, according to the US Department of Agriculture's actual data for the first two weeks and its estimates for the latest two weeks.

Packers pushed 630,000 head of cattle through the plants this week, up 9.2 percent from the 577,000 reported a year ago. They also paid mostly US$91.00 per hundredweight on a live basis and US$145 dressed for cattle this week, generally steady with a week ago. The prices were up US$1 to US$2 from the same week a year ago on a live basis and US$1 to US$3 higher on dressed, according to USDA data.

Export sales of the higher valued beef muscle meats in 2006 grew by 69 percent from the previous year. Total beef sales, which includes variety meat items such as tripe, liver and hearts, were up nearly 40 percent, according to data compiled by the US Meat Export Federation.

The bigger slaughter rates this month follow on the heels of a heftier slaughter in January as well. The USDA released its monthly cattle on feed data which showed marketings of fed cattle from feed yards with capacity of 1,000 or more heads at 2 percent above a year ago.

In the pork sector this week, slaughter was up estimated at 2.006 million head, up 2.2 percent from a year ago. The larger slaughter offset a dip from two weeks ago and brought the monthly total back to about even with a year ago.

Meanwhile, average weights for last week in Iowa/southern Minnesota, the largest hog producing region in the country, were reported by USDA at 267.2 pounds, up slightly from the previous week but 3.4 pounds below a year ago. Weights in the region have averaged about 3 pounds below a year ago during the first seven weeks of this year.