Sales of U.S. hides appeared to have continued at the same pace they have maintained for the last three to four weeks. U.S. Steer hide suppliers again had few, if any, Heavy Native or Butt Brands on their offer lists. Those that were available were cleaned up quickly by tanners. Heavy Texas and Branded Steer hides were not as sought after, but it seemed these selections were cleaned up by the end of last week as well. There has been a lot of talk in the trade that sales have not matched production during the last month or so. But, with number of hides going directly into the blue here in the States, the difficulty of tracking wet blue sales, along with the difficulty of tracking packers’ direct sales to some of the large end users, makes it hard to get a feeling as to the volume of U.S. Raw and Wet Blue hides that have been traded during a given week. For example, three of the big four U.S. packers were out of their offices for most of last week as they continued traveling internationally. How much business they did during their travels is hard to determine. When the USDA Export Sales Report is released a week after the fact, we do have a better idea as to the volume done, but even those numbers can leave us scratching our heads. No matter what the total sales number actually was last week, U.S. hide prices maintained their firmly-steady tone. Tanners are still lamenting the lack of sizable shoe leather orders. But they do admit that they have seen a slight increase in orders recently and they expect more orders after the first of the year. There was no surprise regarding last week’s U.S. cattle slaughter number, as the dynamics of the market have not changed enough to move the harvest number up or down much. As mentioned above, U.S. Steer hide prices have not changed a lot, and as far as we are concerned they remain in the same ranges as we had them in our last week’s report. That being, Big Packer and equivalent seasonal average weight Heavy Native Steer hides between $64.00 to $66.00 per hide and Big Packer and equivalent seasonal average weight Butt Branded Steer hides at $61.00 per piece plant basis. For the Big Packer seasonal average Heavy Texas Steer hide selection we are narrowing the range their value to $50.00 to $54.00 per piece plant basis.
The Export Sales Report released by the USDA on December 14, 2017 encompassing the seven-day period ending Thursday, December 7th stated that a net 497,100 whole cattle hides, and wet blue equivalents had been sold for export during the period. This total is down from the 507,600 pieces reported as sold for export during the prior week, but the number is up from the prior 4-week average.
Federally Inspected Slaughter, (FIS) for the week ending Saturday December 16, 2017, was estimated 630,000 cattle. Year to Date FIS for cattle is estimated 30,590,000 head which is up 1,565,000 or 5.4 percent higher than the same period a year ago.
The end-of-the-year holidays, with this being the week before Christmas, are upon us. So, we expect things to slow down as many here in the U.S. will be wrapping up early this week as they prepare to spend a long weekend with family and friends. This week’s slaughter number will be around what we have been seeing recently, but beef packers will have their crews working shorter hours producing lower harvest numbers next week and the week after. We also do not expect U.S. Steer hide prices to change much this week, as we feel both suppliers and buyers are happy with their respective sold and ownership positions. When it comes to the market and the market prices for U.S. Cow hides we think there is less certainty than there exists for U.S. Steer hides. The cow market depends more on selections and origins to determine their demand and subsequent sale prices. Have a good week.
Mulligan’s Laws
When another foursome is on the green, “Fore!” is not an excuse, “So what?” is not an apology, and “Up yours” is not an explanation
