Increased supply softens fat cattle prices

As anticipated, cattle prices have come down from the peaks reached in the first half of May. “The market has calmed. There’s been plenty of supply, and packers were able to fill their schedules for the rest of the month — one large plant even finished bookings for early June,” a trader told the World Beef Report (WBR).

One major slaughter group was buying this week at US$/kg 4.10 for regular steers and US$/kg 3.85 for fat cows, down 5 and 10 cents, respectively, from the previous week.

Although a bottleneck in supply had been expected once roads dried out, new rainfall on Monday again disrupted logistics in some regions, complicating cattle transport to plants.