Beef Market Update: RAIN! and an upswing in the markets

(Kara Oosterhuis/RealAgriculture)

After a dreary few weeks, we’re starting this episode of the Beef Market Update on a positive note.

Anne Wasko, of the Gateway Livestock Exchange, says on her ranch in southwest Saskatchewan, they got some rain, and hey, the markets are on the way up.

The markets started out this week slow, but quickly picked up pace, starting in the south with Texas and Kansas up a dollar, to $136 for the bulk trade.

In the north, says Wasko, trade was up $1 to $3 in the live, at $141-143, with the bulk of the trade at $228, about $5 higher.

The cutout — which is unusual for this season — was up over $4 at $271 on the choice cutout.

“This is kind of surprising. That’s the highest cut out we’ve seen since mid-April in terms of a weekly close. It’s kind of not typical. It’s great post-Memorial Day, it tells us demand was good over that timeframe,” Wasko says. “And you know, looking back on May we’re kind of scratching our heads saying, hey, that was poor, but now we’re having this nice rally. So we’ll certainly take it.”

North of the border we saw some positives too in the fed cattle market, with the average about $1.50 higher than last week, which comes to around $174 live.

“Most of the trade was between $290 and $292 delivered,” she explains.

Check out the full conversation between Anne Wasko and RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney, below:

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