Cash cattle, boxed beef and hog prices
What packers are paying for fed cattle and hogs, and what beef and pork are selling for, from USDA's mandatory price reports. Compared with the last report, a year ago and the 5-year average.
Cattle and beef
Choice-Select spread: $13.10. A wider spread means buyers are paying more for higher-grading cattle.
Hogs and pork
These are real cash trades reported to USDA by packers, not futures. Cash fed cattle and hogs are what futures settle toward at expiration, so the gap between them tells you whether futures are running ahead of or behind the cash market.
The cutout is what a whole carcass is worth in boxed beef or pork cuts sold to grocers and restaurants. When the cutout rises faster than cash cattle or hogs, packer margins are widening, which usually supports what they'll pay.
Live price is per hundredweight of the live animal; dressed and carcass prices are per hundredweight of the hanging carcass, so they run higher. Hogs here are negotiated purchases for the prior day, carcass basis.
Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Livestock Mandatory Reporting via the LMR datamart: 5-area weekly weighted average direct slaughter cattle (LM_CT150, Mondays), national daily boxed beef cutout afternoon (LM_XB403), national daily direct prior-day hogs (LM_HG201, mornings), national daily pork cutout afternoon (LM_PK602). Checked every hour on weekdays. Not CME futures or CME indexes. Live cattle futures · Lean hog futures · Cattle on Feed, Hogs and Pigs · LRP