Total red meat supplies in US freezers on Oct. 31 were down slightly from the previous month and down about 14% from last year, said the USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report, which catalogs the amount of a host of commodities in freezers.
Total pounds of beef in freezers were up about 6% from the previous month but down about 13% from last year, the Cold Storage report said.
Frozen pork supplies were down about 6% from the previous month and down around 14% from last year. Stocks of pork bellies were down about 6% from last month and down about 31% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies were down about 6% from the previous month but up slightly from a year ago, the report said. Total stocks of chicken were up about 3% from the previous month but down about 4% from last year.
Total pounds of turkey in freezers were down about 24% from last month but up about 13% from a year ago.
BEEF STOCKS MIXED
Total pounds of beef in cold storage came to 444.331 million pounds, up 23.385 million, or 5.56%, from 420.946 million a month ago but down 65.923 million, or 12.9%, from 510.254 million a year ago.
Of that, 402.697 million pounds was classed as “boneless” beef, up 21.270 million, or 5.58%, from 381.427 million last month but down 57.694 million, or 12.5%, from 460.391 million last year.
Another 41.634 million pounds of beef’s total was classed as “beef cuts.” This was up from 39.419 million a month ago but down from 49.863 million a year ago.
PORK INVENTORIES DOWN
At 435.936 million pounds, total frozen pork inventories were down 25.720 million, or 5.57%, from 461.656 million a month earlier and down 73.752 million, or 14.5%, from 509.688 million a year earlier.
Of the total supplies of pork, 27.936 million pounds were bellies, down 1.703 million, or 5.75%, from 29.639 million in September and down 12.311 million, or 30.6%, from 40.247 million in October 2022.
Hams on ice totaled 113.495 million pounds, down 36.097 million, or 24.1%, from 149.592 million a month ago and down 8.129 million, or 6.68%, from 121.624 million a year ago.
Pork loins in cold storage totaled 38.822 million pounds, up 1.207 million, or 3.21%, from 37.615 million a month earlier but down 567,000, or 1.44%, from 39.389 million a year earlier.
CHICKEN STOCKS MIXED
Chicken in cold storage totaled 857.529 million pounds, up 26.336 million, or 3.17%, from 831.193 million a month earlier but down 33.711 million, or 3.78%, from 891.240 million a year earlier.
Of that, 15.310 million pounds was whole broilers, down 453,000, or 2.87%, from 15.763 million a month ago but up 1.518 million, or 11.0%, from 13.792 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 $178.07 per cwt to $180.99, compared with last week’s range of $178.00 to $186.00 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $280.87 per cwt to $284.01, compared with $283.24 to $292.15.
The USDA choice cutout Wednesday was up $1.19 per cwt at $297.00 while select was down $1.15 at $267.62. The choice/select spread widened to $29.38 from $27.04 with 144 loads of fabricated product and 25 loads of trimmings and grinds sold into the spot market.
The USDA said basis bids for corn from feeders in the Southern Plains were unchanged at $1.35 to $1.40 a bushel over the Dec corn contract, which settled at $4.68 3/4 a bushel, down $0.01 1/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Tuesday was $226.94 per cwt, up $0.18. This compares with Wednesday’s Nov contract settlement of $227.02, down $1.30.