Where are calf prices headed this fall? | Beef Market Update, Oct 9, 2026

Well, of course, um, th-this is the time of year where lots is happening, first of all.

And of course, uh, it doesn't take much these days.

All you need a little bit of a news headline story, whether it's on beef imports or packer troubles or, um, you know, live cattle trade or whatever it might be, but there's always something out there that seems to trigger markets.

This week on the cash, especially talking about the US market, it's been really quiet so far.

I think, you know, packers did buy a lot of cattle last week, so they're in a quieter or a, a better position this week.

So really nothing traded in the south yet.

They're-- the, the feedlots are asking two twenty-eight.

Last week's sales were two twenty-six, so that's kind of where we're, we're sitting between, um, asks and, uh, recent trade.

We did get a little bit of dress trade in the North, in that Nebraska, um, region, three forty-five delivered.

That's about-- we call that steady to five lower than last week.

So that's-- And again, the bulk, when you look at where are the cattle for s- for sale are available right now, there's certainly more in that Corn Belt region than, say, in the Southern Plains.

So we are seeing that price difference between the two areas.

The cutout, that wholesale price we talk about, it's been holding fairly solid.

Again, Lindsay and I talked about this two weeks ago, because of the smaller kill for some of the reasons, um, we talked about, uh, in terms of labor issues or, uh, or plant issues.

The, the production was smaller, and so that was very supportive to the cutout.

It's only down two bucks this week, three seventy-four eighty-five on the choice, and that's-- normally at this time of year, it's dropping more than that, Shaun.

This is when you-- if you're gonna run into trouble, uh, in terms of demand, it's right now, and, um, it's off a bit, but not off a lot.

Um-

So is that an indic-- is it indication that demand is-

Well-

-unseasonally strong?

I, I'm gonna say it's more the packers finally got back into the black, you know, in, in, in September after, you know, a historic long period of losses.

And, uh, they're gonna do everything in their power to keep that cutout at a level that keeps some profitability there.

So I think they're gonna push, um, push that envelope and see where can we keep these levels for how long until we get closer to that holiday season.

So I don't know if it's a demand story, more of a, we ran into some issues on, on, on production here a few weeks ago and, and just trying to keep those levels fairly steady.