Cattle marketing delayed by July 4 holiday

Early indications are that beef clearance at the retail level, and cattle prices, have held up through the July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Feeder cattle were steady to strong today at the bellweather Oklahoma City livestock auction, on 4,800 head--about half of normal. Boxed beef and cattle futures were essentially steady today, the other key parts of the cattle price equation.

Many local auctions weren't held at all last week, and the ones that were had greatly reduced volume, as buyers and sellers alike played hookie for the long holiday weekend. For that reason, you'll be able to tell a lot more about the cattle market in a week than you can today.

Traditionally, beef goes into a summer slump after July 4, as cooks decide not to heat up the kitchen with oven roasts and meat loaf, until the weather cools off in the fall. Cattle numbers are down in the sale barns until fall, as the great numbers of cattle are out on summer grazing. No major drought appears to be on the horizon to bring them in early.

The other factor, just now seriously coming into play, is that cattle numbers are greatly diminished, due both to recent death loss in snowstorms in some areas, and drought culls in others. The calf crop was smaller, and that will be reflected in fall cattle marketing. Less supply, which is expected to be met by steady demand, will keep prices up.

That's a thumbnail sketch of the summer, 2008 cattle market.