by Andrew Griffith, Livestock Marketing Specialist
January 30, 2026
FED CATTLE
Fed cattle traded $3 to $5 higher this week compared to a week ago on a live basis. Prices on a live basis were mainly $238 to $240 while dressed prices were mainly $375 to $378.
The 5-area weighted average prices thru Thursday were $236.74 live, up $4.81 compared to a week ago and $370.82 dressed up $6.07 compared to last week. A year ago, prices were $209.36 live and $329.24 dressed.
Cattle feeders continue to hold the branding iron on packers as the cattle feeder clearly has leverage when it comes to finished cattle trade. This does not mean they can ask any price they want for cattle, but they can inch them higher as they have consistently been doing. Another factor at play is the winter weather. Cattle are less efficient with feed and thus grow at a slower rate when it is cold and it only gets worse if there is mud. This means cattle are not growing as quickly as they were in the summer and fall. Thus, cattle feeders do not have to move cattle as quickly and can hold out for higher prices. This situation is likely to persist for a while longer, but how long is not known.
BEEF CUTOUT
At midday Friday, the Choice cutout was $366.44 down $1.22 from Thursday and down $2.26 from a week ago. The Select cutout was $363.00 up $2.28 from Thursday and up $1.70 from last week. The Choice Select spread was $3.44 compared to $7.40 a three weeks ago.
The beef market is trudging through the slow winter months when demand tends to be seasonally soft for beef. The wholesale beef prices is amazingly strong, but it still has packers losing money on every animal that is harvested. The winter precipitation that blanketed a large portion of the country this week has certainly slowed beef movement in the food service industry, which is only a negative toward the beef industry. The thought on many packers’ minds is that summer cannot get here fast enough, but they will have to continue fighting through the remainder of winter as well as traverse some of the slower demand that comes with the Lenten season leading up to Easter. One of the keys to some of the trouble will be consumers shift back to middle meats as that will result in increased value for the large percentage of cattle grading Choice and Prime, but the focus is not on quality grade this time of year for many consumers. The focus will eventually shift and the results of such will reveal the direction of the beef market.
OUTLOOK
No trends could be established this week based on Tennessee weekly auction markets due to winter weather that resulted in most auctions being closed and very few animals going through sales that did operate. This is likely the case for most states that were impacted by the wintry blast that brought considerable quantities of snow, sleet, ice and freezing rain to many areas. Tennessee was a good example of the breadth of conditions experienced due to the cold weather and winter precipitation as some areas received several inches of snow, other areas had a mixture of snow and freezing rain, and yet others only had rain. This week, most cattle producers experiencing winter precipitation have had to place most of their efforts on keeping cattle fed and watered while putting marketing on the backburner. At the same time, many of these folks are also dealing with power outages, which means their own living conditions have been compromised to varying degrees. There does appear to be some minimal relief to begin next week following another weekend of frigid temperatures and possible precipitation over the weekend. However, cattle marketings next week will also be fairly limited due to the continued cold and sloppy pasture conditions. This likely means there will be a good run of calves as soon as conditions are favorable to moving cattle. The run of calves may only last one week, but it will come. From a price standpoint, the expectation is calf prices will be steady to higher once cattle producers are able to set wheels under calves they would like to market. At this time, there is no reason to think cattle prices will decline given the fundamentals of the market. The January 1, Cattle Inventory report will be released Friday January 30th, and the information in the report will be useful in knowing the direction of cattle prices and even the magnitude of prices to some degree. There is certainly some skepticism in cattle markets with record cattle prices, but prices should remain relatively strong the next few years.
ASK ANDREW, TN THINK TANK
Several questions were asked this week, and most of them were well thought out questions. For instance, one question was what attributes is a buyer looking for when purchasing stocker calves. The primary attribute is quality. Buyers are looking for a certain quality of animal and will pay accordingly as it relates to muscling and expected growth. Buyers also consider many other factors when determining a price, but the quality of animal is generally the number one aspect. Another question was concerning how the feeder cattle futures market aligns with cash markets. The person answering the question (me), could have done a better job answering the question. However, the short answer is feeder cattle futures are attempting to predict what the CME feeder cattle index is going to be at a certain time period. The CME feeder cattle index is a 7-day weighted rolling average of 700-899 pound steers sold in a 12-state region west of the Mississippi River. Tennessee prices may be different, but they move in the same direction.
Please send questions and comments to agriff14@utk.edu.
FRIDAY’S FUTURES MARKET CLOSING PRICES
Friday’s closing prices were as follows: Live/fed cattle –February $235.85 +0.35; April $236.80 -0.48; June $231.73 -1.55; Feeder cattle –March $360.28 -4.85; April $358.28 -4.95; May $355.13 -4.85; August $354.05 -4.58; March corn closed at $4.28 down 3 cents from Thursday.