Total red meat supplies in US freezers on Nov. 30 were down about 2% from the previous month and down about 11% from last year, said the USDA’s monthly Cold Storage report Friday.
Total pounds of beef in freezers were up about 2% from the previous month but down about 13% from last year.
Frozen pork supplies were down about 5% from the previous month and down about 8% from last year. Stocks of pork bellies were up about 67% from last month but down about 14% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies were down about 8% from the previous month but up around 3% from a year ago. Total stocks of chicken were up about 3% from the previous month but down about 3% from last year.
Total pounds of turkey in freezers were down about 37% from last month but up about 44% from Nov. 30, 2022.
BEEF STOCKS MIXED
Frozen beef supplies totaled 454.662 million pounds on Nov. 30, up 8.994 million, or 2.02%, from 445.668 million on Oct. 31 but down 68.587 million, or 13.1%, from 523.249 million from Nov. 30, 2022.
Of that, 414.554 million pounds were classed as “boneless” beef, up 10.465 million, or 2.59%, from 404.089 million a month earlier but down 64.101 million, or 13.4%, from 478.655 million a year earlier.
Another 40.108 million pounds was classed as “beef cuts,” down 1.471 million, or 3.54%, from 41.579 million a month earlier and down 4.486 million, or 10.1%, from 44.594 million a year earlier.
PORK STOCKS DECLINE
Stocks of pork in US freezers totaled 416.094 million pounds, down 21.807 million, or 4.98%, from 437.901 million a month earlier and down 35.504 million, or 7.86%, from 451.598 million a year earlier.
Of that, pork belly stocks totaled 46.976 million pounds, up 18.915 million, or 67.4%, from 28.061 million a month earlier but down 7.453 million, or 13.7%, from 54.429 million a year earlier.
Another 58.251 million pounds was hams, down 55.319 million or 48.7%, from 113.570 million in October but up 2.967 million, or 5.37%, from 55.284 million in the 2022 month.
Pork loins in cold storage totaled 40.516 million pounds up 1.181 million, or 3.00%, from 39.335 million a month earlier and up 1.137 million, or 2.89%, from 39.379 million a year earlier.
CHICKEN STOCKS MIXED
Total chicken in cold storage was 881.443 million pounds, up 22.740 million, or 2.65%, from 858.703 million a month earlier but down 30.010 million, or 3.29%, from 911.453 million a year earlier.
Whole chickens totaled 12.212 million pounds, down 3.096 million, or 20.2%, from 15.308 million a month earlier but up 980,000, or 8.73%, from 11.232 million a year earlier.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
The USDA reported formula and contract base prices for live FOB steers and heifers this week ranged from $171.31 per cwt to $171.72, compared with last week’s range of $163.80 to $171.51 per cwt. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $268.60 per cwt to $269.79, compared with $266.16 to $271.15.
The USDA choice cutout Tuesday was up $0.38 per cwt at $293.31 while select was up $0.04 at $261.19. The choice/select spread widened to $32.12 from $31.78 with 56 loads of fabricated product and 13 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 $1.28 to $1.38 a bushel over the Mar corn contract, which settled at $4.80 1/4 a bushel, up $0.07 1/4.
No delivery intentions were posted for Dec live cattle Tuesday.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Monday was $221.03 per cwt, down $1.03. This compares with Tuesday’s Jan contract settlement of $223.55, up $0.80.