This Week In Grass Cattle

The cash market continues to sag in response to low demand and a strengthening dollar. The futures however, have held their ground pretty well.

Look for heifers to remain pretty undervalued in the market as demand appears to be really heavy for lighter weight steers which is putting upward pressure on prices.

Buy steers, medium 1 673# @ $121.00
Lock 'em in on the board for SEP 10 @ $108.25
Run on grass for 100 days @ $0.72/day
Allow $20/hd for operating costs
Sell 863# in September
Breakeven $105.02
Profit $27.86/hd less basis and commissions.

Buy heifers, medium 1 676# @ $113.50
Sell 854# in September
Breakeven $100.97
Profit $62.13/hd less basis and commissions.



Buy steers, medium 1 790# @ $112.93
Sell 958# in September
Breakeven $103.10
Profit $49.28/hd less basis and commissions.

Buy heifers, medium 1 773# @ $109.40
Sell 920# in September
Breakeven $102.31
Profit $54.63/hd less basis and commissions.




Buy steers, medium 1 871# @ $110.66
Sell 962# in September
Breakeven $105.15
Profit $31.17/hd less basis and commissions.

Buy heifers, medium 1 822# @ $100.40
Sell 937# in September
Breakeven $98.22
Profit $93.95/hd less basis and commissions.

Light (<700#) and heavy (>850#)heifers seem to have the advantage this go around. It will be interesting to see how the cash market pans out this week.

In the middle weights, it seems to be about a wash...decent potential on both.

I'd shy away from the light and heavy steers if you are going to grass with them unless you can get them bought right. Light weights are pretty over valued for grass and you won't get enough performance out of heavy weights on grass this late in the season. There might be some value to capture if they go straight to the feedbunk, but you'll need to keep your pencil pretty sharp to make these work on grass.