Live cattle futures were rallying into the close, with gains of 77 cents to $1.72 on the day, as April was $3.15 higher this week. Cash trade settled in late with $235-236 sales in the North and $235 in the South. The Friday morning Fed Cattle Exchange online auction showed $370 dressed sales on just 38 of the 1,026 head offered, with other bids of $233-235. Feeder cattle futures were in rally mode, up $32.22 to $3.42 at the close, with March $8.27 higher this week. The CME Feeder Cattle Index was up another $1.37 to $362.06 on March 19.
Cattle on Feed data from Friday afternoon showed a total of 1.611 million head of feeders placed in lots over 1,000 head during February, a 3.67% increase yr/yr. Marketings totaled 1.522 million head, down 7.8% vs. last year. That took the March 1 on feed inventory to 11.549 million head, a 0.24% drop yr/yr and compares to a 1.86% decline on Feb 1.
