USA: Cattle market overview for 18-19 weeks of 2023

The USDA said Thursday morning that beef EXPORT sales for the week ended May 4 were 16,600 tons, up from 20,100 tons a week earlier.

Total beef production in 2023 is estimated at 26.921 billion pounds. The USDA also gave a first look at 2024 production, which is estimated at 24.745 billion pounds.  

The USDA estimated the weekly slaughter of 646,000 cattle through Saturday. That's up from 623,000 last week, but down from 651,000 in the same week last year. Since the beginning of the year, slaughter has reached 11.925 million heads, lagging behind last year by 3.1%.

WEEKLY CUT CHOICE COST

CATTLE SALES

Sale of livestock, heads

Average weight

Week 18

Week 19

Growth per week,%

Week 18

Week 19

Growth per week,%

Bulls (live weight)

31 719

29 569

-6.8%

1452

1420

-2.2%

Heifers (live weight)

11 085

10 317

-6.9%

1 342

1 294

-3.6%

Bulls (slaughter. weight)

10 063

9 626

-4.3%

917

914

-0.3%

Heifers (slaughter weight)

5 566

3 140

-43.6%

831

839

1.0%

WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF BULLS

BEEF PRODUCTION

Index

Week 19

Week 18

19 week 2022

Growth per week,%

Growth per year, %

Slaughter volume

646 000

623 000

651 000

3.7%

-0.8%

Live weight

1 354

1 357

1 357

-0.2%

-0.2%

slaughter weight

817

818

818

-0.1%

-0.1%

Beef production (million pounds)

526.5

508.5

531.9

3.5%

-1.0%

CME: Live Cattle Futures

Week 18

Week 19

Growth per week,%

June

164.88

164.40

-0.3%

August

162.65

162.45

-0.1%

October

167.00

166.15

-0.5%

Futures for fattening cattle

May

209.70

205.48

-2.0%

August

230.10

228.98

-0.5%

September

233.08

231.98

-0.5%

You can learn more about the state of the cattle market in the United States ( cattle prices, beef prices by category, production dynamics) in the weekly reviews of the MEAT market in RUSSIA and in the world from Meatinfo.ru. Weekly reviews are available free of charge as part of a monthly meat analytics subscription . Russian markets.