Total red meat supplies in freezers Feb. 28 were up about 3% from January but were down about 12% from last year, said the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service Monday in the monthly Cold Storage report.
Total frozen poultry supplies on Feb. 28 were down about 3% from the previous month and down about 14% from a year ago. Total chicken stocks were down about 6% from the previous month and down a bout 17% from last year.
Total pounds of turkey in freezers were up about 6% from last month but down about 6% from Feb. 29, 2020.
BEEF STOCKS MIXED
Total pounds of beef in freezers, at 510.896 million pounds, were down 8.458 million, or 1.63% from 519.354 million the previous month but up 16.303 million, or 3.30% from 494.593 million last year.
The volume of boneless beef in cold storage at the end of February totaled 474.243 million pounds, down 6.983 million, or 1.45%, from 481.226 million a month earlier but up 13.903 million, or 3.02%, from 460.340 million a year earlier.
Beef cuts in freezers totaled 36.653 million pounds, down 1.475 million, or 3.87%, from 38.128 million a month earlier but up 2.400 million, or 7.01%, from 34.253 million a year earlier.
PORK STOCKS ALSO MIXED
Frozen pork supplies, at 491.481 million pounds, were up 33.973 million, or 7.43%, from 457.508 million the previous month but down 157.494 million, or 24.3%, from 648.975 million last year.
Stocks of pork bellies were 37.974 million pounds, up 6.742 million, or 21.6%, from 31.232 million last month but down 36.296 million, or 48.9%, from 74.270 million last year.
Total hams in cold storage were 92.513 million pounds, up 8.305 million, or 9.86%, from 84.208 million a month ago but down 22.021 million, or 19.2%, from 114.534 million a year ago.
Frozen loins on Feb. 28 totaled 46.324 million pounds, up 6.08 million, or 15.1%, from 40.244 million a month ago but down 2.657 million, or 5.42%, from 48.981 million a year ago.
CHICKEN STOCKS DOWN
Chicken stocks in freezers at the end of February totaled 769.238 million pounds, down 48.080 million, or 5.88%, from 817.318 million at the end of January and down from 924.433 million at the end of February 2020.
Of that, 222.659 million was breasts or breast meat, down 16.629 million, or 6.95%, from 239.288 million a month earlier and down 278,000, or 0.12%, from 222.937 million a year earlier.
Whole fryers and roasters came to 12.102 million pounds, down 2.050 million, or 14.5%, from 14.152 million at the end of January and down 7.831 million, or 39.3%, from 19.933 million at the end of February 2020.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Fed cattle trading last week was at $114 to $115 per cwt on a live basis, up $1 from the previous week. Dressed-basis trading was steady to up $2 at $180 to $182.
The USDA choice cutout Monday was up $0.96 per cwt at $230.95, while select was up $3.10 at $223.05. The choice/select spread narrowed to $7.90 from $10.04 with 68 loads of fabricated product and 14 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 $1.25 to $1.27 a bushel over the May CBOT futures contract, which settled at $5.49 a bushel, down $0.08 3/4.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Friday was $134.26 per cwt, up $0.23. This compares with Monday’s Mar contract settlement of $135.07 per cwt, up $0.40.