Cattle prices have been moving higher, but not to the same extent as beef prices.
For the first eight months of this year, fed-steer prices are 18.9% above the 2018-19 average for January-August. Feeder steer prices are up 13.2%. While these are solid increases, they fail to match the rise in Choice boxed beef prices (+22.1%) and Choice retail beef prices (+27.4%) over the same period.
There have always been ebbs and flows throughout the cattle and beef marketing chain regarding market leverage and relative prices. When feedlots are chasing a relatively tight supply of available feeder…
