Thin holiday trade drags live cattle, hog futures - CME

Jan 05, 2026

Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle and lean hog futures fell while feeder cattle futures rose on year-end positioning, Reuters reported, citing analysts, with the trade thin between Christmas and New Year holidays.

Many funds still have net long positions, said Doug Houghton, analyst at Brock Associates, "If they're taking profits, that's going to weigh on things," he said.

In lean hogs, the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA) quarterly hogs and pigs report last week showed larger numbers than expected, also weighing on futures, said Houghton.

The USDA on Monday afternoon reported pork bellies fell $4.50 to $124.08 per hundredweight.

The CME benchmark February lean hog futures fell 0.050 cent to 84.475 cents per pound.

The CME February live cattle settled 0.675 cents lower at 228.975 cents per pound. March feeder cattle settled 1.250 cents higher at 341.675 cents per pound.

In cattle, Houghton noted, "there's still a lot of trepidation in the market about when the USDA might re-open cattle imports from Mexico, but it's hard to say from day to day that that's really a factor."

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.