Total red meat supplies on March 31 in US freezers were up about 1% from the previous month and up about 9% from last year, the USDA said in its monthly Cold Storage report Friday.
Total pounds of beef in freezers were up about 1% from the previous month and up about 11% from last year, the USDA said. Frozen pork supplies were up about 2% from the previous month and up about 8% from last year. Stocks of pork bellies were up about 13% from last month and up about 60% from last year.
Total frozen poultry supplies on March 31 were up about 1% from the previous month but down about 1% from a year ago, the report said. Total stocks of chicken were down about 1% from the previous month but up about 5% from last year.
Total pounds of turkey in freezers were up about 5% from last month but down about 12% from March 31, 2021.
BEEF STOCKS UP
The total amount of frozen beef on March 31 was 536.887 million pounds, up 5.387 million, or 1.01%, from 531.500 million a month earlier and up 53.897 million, or 11.2%, from 482.990 million a year ago, the report said.
Of that, 487.169 million pounds was listed as “boneless” beef, up 2.752 million, or 0.57%, from 484.417 million a month earlier and up 36.507 million, or 8.10%, from 450.662 million a year earlier.
Another 49.718 million pounds was “beef cuts,” up 2.635 million, or 5.60%, from 47.083 million a month earlier and up 17.390, or 53.8%, from 32.328 million a year earlier.
PORK STOCKS MOSTLY HIGHER
The total volume of pork in cold storage was 487.190 million pounds, up 7.299 million, or 1.52%, from 479.891 million a month earlier and up 36.148 million, or 8.01%, from 451.042 million a year earlier.
Of that, 56.779 million pounds was pork bellies, up 6.640 million, or 13.2%, from 50.139 million at the end of February and up 21.381 million, or 60.4%, from 35.398 million a year earlier.
Also included was 74.055 million pounds of hams, down 10.193 million, or 12.1%, from 84.248 million a month earlier but up 13.279 million, or 21.8%, from 60.776 million a year earlier.
Pork loins in cold storage totaled 39.792 million pounds, down 3.234 million, or 7.52%, from 43.026 million a month earlier and down 7.836 million, or 16.5%, from 47.628 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 $143.06 to $143.11 per cwt, compared with last week’s range of $141.47 to $143.77. FOB dressed steers, and heifers went for $221.75 to $221.78 per cwt, versus $217.03 to $221.89.
The USDA choice cutout Monday was down $1.31 per cwt at $266.60, while select was up $1.75 at $256.52. The choice/select spread narrowed to $10.08 from $13.14 with 44 loads of fabricated product and 23 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 $1.50 to $1.60 a bushel over the May futures and for southwest Kansas were unchanged at $0.10 over May, which settled at $8.00 1/4 a bushel, up $0.07 1/4.
No new delivery intentions were posted Monday against the Apr futures contract. Twenty-five heifer contracts were retendered for delivery at one, and seven heifer contracts were retendered for delivery at two.
The CME Feeder Cattle Index for the seven days ended Friday was $156.52 per cwt up $1.31. This compares with Monday’s Apr contract settlement $156.55, down $1.40, and May’s $161.30, down $2.57.