In other trading, lean hogs were mostly lower while bellies saw sharper declines.

Wednesday's decline in live and feeder cattle took prices to attractive areas for hedge lifting prior to selling this week in the cash, and technical short covering added to Thursday's push back to higher ground, they said.

"The market really overdid it yesterday," one broker said. "Today was a readjustment."

Once the short covering got started, it was difficult to stop, analysts and brokers said.

Corn futures were higher during the day until a late pullback, but cattle traders said the gains weren't as high as expected, and this tended to support the cattle market throughout the session. The late dip in corn futures just cemented the gains in live and feeder cattle futures, they said.

Source: FXSTREET