Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle futures rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, lifted by tight supplies of cattle and rising beef prices, reported Reuters.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA), in a monthly report on Tuesday, raised its forecast for cattle prices for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026, signalling that the market is well supported.
"The government's telling you that we're in the cycle where we're holding back heifers, so we're in a bullish cattle cycle with retention," said Don Roose, president of US Commodities.
A recent upturn in beef prices is also helping improve beef packer margins that have been languishing in the red for weeks.
"Buying (beef) for school lunch programs is probably behind us, but they're buying for Labor Day now. So the packers are pushing the beef up," Roose said.
The average beef packer margin was estimated at a negative $105.55 per head on Wednesday, up from a negative $257.90 per head a week ago, according to livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.
The USDA said the choice boxed beef cutout value dipped by 9 cents to $390.49 per hundredweight (cwt) on Wednesday after surging $11.74 over the previous two days. The select beef gained another $2.32 to $365.64 per cwt after rising by $10.55 on Monday and Tuesday, the USDA said.
CME October live cattle futures ended 0.400 cent higher at 229.425 cents per pound after rising to within 0.425 cent of a contract high posted last week.
Feeder cattle followed live cattle higher, with the actively traded September contract up 0.375 cent at 346.625 cents per pound.
Lean hog futures retreated on Wednesday on technical selling and pressure from forecasts for rising supplies.
The October hog contract fell 0.825 cent to 90.775 cents per pound.
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