Thursday’s monthly USDA Cold Storage report was hard to interpret. Stocks of meat and poultry were down from a month earlier but up from the pandemic-laden 2021.
Consumers were buying meat last month in spite of inflation, but it’s hard to say they were cutting back from last year.
Total red meat supplies in freezers were down slightly from May but up about 20% from last year.
Total pounds of beef in freezers were down about 2% from May but up about 25% from last year.
Frozen pork supplies were up about 2% from May and up about 17% from last year. Stocks of pork bellies were down about 3% from last month but up about 55% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies were up about 2% from the previous month and up about 1% from a year ago. Total chicken stocks of chicken were down about 2% from the previous month but up about 3% from last year.
Total pounds of turkey in freezers were up about 13% from last month but down about 4% from last year.
BEEF STOCKS RISE
Total beef supplies in cold storage came to 519.833 million pounds, a record for the month, down 12.334 million, or 2.32%, from 532.167 million a month earlier but up 103.158, or 24.8%, from 416.675 million a year earlier.
Of that, 471.073 million pounds, another record for the date, were boneless beef, down 12.139 million, or 2.51%, from 483.212 million a month earlier but up 86.022 million, or 22.3%, from 385.051 million a year earlier.
Another 48.760 million pounds were classed as beef cuts, down 195,000, or 0.40%, from 48.955 million a month earlier but up 17.136 million, or 54.2%, from 31.624 million a year ago.
PORK SUPPLIES RISE
Total pork supplies on ice were 543.079 million pounds, up 9.683 million, or 1.82%, from 533.396 million a month earlier and up 80.633 million, or 17.4%, from 462.446 million a year ago.
Of that, frozen pork bellies totaled 56.392 million pounds, 1.939 million, or 3.32%, from 58.331 million a month ago but up 20.001 million, or 55.0%, from 36.391 million a year ago.
Also included in the total pounds of frozen pork were 126.408 million pounds of hams, up from 98.038 million a month earlier and up from 109.337 million a year earlier.
Another 40.268 million pounds were frozen loins, down 1.861 million, or 4.42%, from 42,129 million a month ago but up 1.601 million, or 4.14%, from 38.667 million a year ago.
CHICKEN STOCKS UP
Total chicken stocks were 751.390 million pounds, versus 768.101 million last month and 730.378 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 $140.00 to $147.09 per cwt, compared with last week’s range of $135.00 to $144.00. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $216.47 to $223.41 per cwt, versus $213.01 to $219.19.
The USDA choice cutout Thursday was down $1.91 per cwt at $264.66, while select was down $1.05 at $244.94. The choice/select spread narrowed to $19.72 from $20.58 with 79 loads of fabricated product and 26 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA reported that basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.90 to $2.00 a bushel over the Jul futures and for southwest Kansas were steady at even the Jul, which settled at $7.46 3/4 a bushel, down $0.21 1/4.
No live cattle delivery intentions were tendered Thursday.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Wednesday was $165.23 per cwt up $0.02. This compares with Thursday’s Aug contract settlement of $174.85, up $1.70.