Remember about four years ago when farmers were complaining about the lack of competition among meat packers and then-president Joe Biden prescribed multi-million-dollar subsidies to entice investment?
How things have changed!
Last week packers lost $278.44 per head, according to Sterling Marketing’s weekly Beef Profit Tracker by Drovers.
Losses have been hovering at a level of nearly $300 per head, according to calculations covering a week earlier and a month earlier. A year ago packers were taking losses of $82.22 per head.
Steer and heifer slaughter declines by 4.2 per cent from the week earlier, to 453,096 head. Total beef production dropped the same percentage to 484.9 million pounds from the week-earlier total.
Slaughter is at 76.8 of plant capacity, down from 80.1 per cent the week earlier, and compared with 78.8 per cent capacity a month ago.
Choice steer prices averaged $239.91 per hundredweight while breakeven prices for finished cattle were $179.98 per hundredweight, supporting feedlot margins of $839.06 per head, up by 10.9 per cent from a week ago and 124 per cent from a year ago.
