Negative news appeared on Tuesday, September 25: on Monday Albertsons made a statement about recalling ground beef under its brand, which was sold in the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho due to the fear that the meat may be infected with potentially lethal type of coliform bacterium.
The beef has been exported from Canada; Canadian government is holding its investigation.
CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) warns community, distributors, and catering facilities against selling products made of ground beef, as they may be infected with coliform bacterium O157: H7.
This has resulted in rapid downtrend.
USDA latest report was issued on September 18, its cattle related data includes:
- Cattle inventory as of January 01, 2012 amounted to 90.768 mln. heads, which is 2.07% less than last year.
- Cattle on feed inventory as of January 01, 2012 amounted to 29.883 mln. heads, which is 3.13% less than last year.
- Number of calves in 2011 amounted to 35.313 mln. heads, which is 1.07% less than last year.
All figures concerning cattle are record low since 1980.
On September 21 USDA published its report on feeder cattle:
As of September 01, 2012 the number of feeder cattle amounted to 10.637 mln. heads, which is 0.6% less than last year and 0.2% less than last month.
In August 2012, 2.002 mln. heads of cattle has been placed on feedlots, which is 10.86% less than last year and 4.16% more than last month.
Marketed cattle in August 2012 has amounted to 1.96 mln. heads, which is 4.53% less than last year and 2.46% more than last month.
On September 21 USDA report on slaughter was published:
Slaughter in August has amounted to 2.3675 mln. heads, which is 0.81% less than last year but 7.57% more than last month.
Slaughter during the period of January-August: 22.1266 mln. heads, which is 3.02% less than last year.
Average live weight in August 2012 has amounted to 1300 pounds, which is 2.36% more than last year and 0.39% more than last month.
On September 21 USDA report on storage was published:
At the end of August storage has amounted to 429.795 mln. pounds, which is 267% more than last year but 8.78% less than last month.
On September 12 USDA reports on export-import was published:
Export during the period of January-July 2012 has amounted to 1414.53 mln. pounds, which is 10.5% less than in 2011.
Import during the period of January-July 2012 has amounted to 1443.9 mln. pounds, which is 15.68% more than in 2011.
Last week results:
Production has amounted to 436.5 mln. Pounds, having thus dropped by 3.6% on a weekly basis and by 3.2% on an annual basis.
Last week slaughter has amounted to 623 ths. heads, which shows a drop by 3.7% on a weekly basis and by 5.9% on an annual basis.
Live weight has amounted to 1306 pounds, having thus increased by 4 pounds in comparison to last week.
According to USDA weekly report, export has amounted to 10.900 mln. tons, which is 35% less than last week.
Range condition according to the latest report of USDA: at the end of last week the number of good and very good ranges has amounted to 20%, which is 1% more than last week and 11% less than last year; poor and very poor ranges have amounted to 56% of the total number, which is equal to last week and 14% more than last year.
Therefore, despite the downtrend observed these days, according to the Analytics Team of Commodity Trading Department of , fundamental data proves that bullish trends prevail in cattle market. Nevertheless, price rise may be expected in long-term perspective.
P.S.: Option selling remains topical in cattle market.
