Total red meat supplies in freezers on July 31, were up slightly from a month earlier but were down about 8% from last year, according to the monthly Cold Storage report Monday.
Total poultry supplies in cold storage were up about 2% from a month earlier but were down about 17% from a year ago. Total chicken stocks were down about 1% from a month earlier and down about 16% from last year. Turkey stocks were up about 7% month on month but down about 16% year on year.
BEEF STOCKS LOWER
Total frozen beef stocks came to 401.259 million pounds, down 256,000, or 0.06%, from 401.515 million last month and down 38.917 million, or 8.84%, from 440.176 million last year.
Of that, 371.610 million pounds were classified as boneless beef, down 359,000, or 0.10%, from 371.969 million a month earlier and down 34.938 million, or 8.60%, from 406.548 million a year earlier.
Another 29.649 million pounds were classed as beef cuts, up 103,000, or 0.35%, from 29.546 million a month earlier but down 3.979 million, or 11.8%, from 33.628 million a year earlier.
PORK STOCKS MIXED
The total volume of pork in cold storage on July 31 was 443.128 million pounds, up 1.212 million, or 0.27%, from 441.916 million a month earlier but down 17.507 million, or 3.80%, from a year ago’s 460.635 million.
Of that, 27.738 million pounds were bellies, down 8.647 million, or 23.8%, from 36.385 million a month earlier and down 14.636 million, or 34.5%, from 42.374 million a year earlier.
Another 152.614 million pounds was hams, up 22.064 million, or 16.9%, from 130.550 million a month earlier and up 15.993 million, or 11.7%, from 136.621 million a year earlier.
Total pork loins on ice July 31 came to 31.252 million pounds, down 2.619 million, or 7.73%, from 33.871 million a month earlier and down 5.937 million, or 16.0%, from 37.189 million a year earlier.
CHICKEN STOCKS DECLINE
The total volume of chicken in cold storage July 31 came to 734.085 million pounds, down 4.171 million, or 0.56%, from 738.256 million a month earlier and down 142.768 million, or 16.3%, from 876.853 million a year earlier.
Of that, 181.629 million pounds were breasts and breast meat, down 13.499 million, or 6.92%, from 195.128 million a month earlier and down 21.858 million, or 10.7%, from 203.487 million a year earlier.
Another 76.200 million pounds were leg quarters, compared with 68.361 million a month earlier and 79.798 million a year ago.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers this week ranged from $121.51 to $124.51 per cwt, compared with last week’s weekly range of $124.26 to $125.75. FOB dressed steers and heifers went for $192.32 to $195.60 per cwt, versus last week’s $197.57 to $203.18.
The USDA choice cutout Monday was up $2.97 per cwt at $348.03, while select was up $0.87 at $319.40. The choice/select spread widened to $28.63 from $26.53 with 56 loads of fabricated product and 27 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA reported Monday that basis bids for corn from livestock feeding operations in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.60 to $2.00 a bushel over the Sep futures and for southwest Kansas were down $0.30 at $0.40 over Sep, which settled at $5.38 1/4 a bushel, down $0.00 3/4.
No contracts were tendered for delivery Monday against Aug cattle futures.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Friday was $155.73 per cwt down $0.06. This compares with Monday’s Aug contract settlement of $158.20 per cwt, down $0.82.