Cattle futures ease after feedlot placements beat forecasts - CME
Hog futures slip as lean hog contracts lose ground
27 May 2026
1 minute read
By: Live cattle and feeder cattle futures eased on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) on Tuesday after the US Department of Agriculture reported last week that producers placed more cattle than expected into feedlots in April, reported Reuters.
A resurgent drought across the US Plains has encouraged producers to send more cattle to feedlots because there is little grass on which they can graze, analysts said.
The US placed 5.5% more cattle into feedlots last month than a year earlier, USDA said in a monthly Cattle on Feed (COF) report issued after trading ended on Friday. Analysts had expected a 3.4% increase, according to a Reuters survey.
Larger placements signal that more cattle will be available for packers to process into beef in roughly three to eight months.
Last week, live cattle and feeder cattle futures each fell more than 3% as traders factored in estimates for increased placements in April.
"The COF was slightly negative compared to estimates and last year's values," said Brian Hoops, president of Midwest Market Solutions. "I felt a lot of that negativity was built into prices last week."
Placements could now exceed last year's levels for the next three to four months, in part because placements this year are being compared against low levels last year, an analyst said. Last year, for example, USDA reported that placements in May 2025 were down 8% from a year earlier.
August live cattle slipped 0.45 cent to close at 239.15 cents per pound on Tuesday, while August feeder cattle futures closed down 0.4 cent at 349.450 cents per pound. The contracts stayed above March lows reached on Friday.
Some traders said expectations for weaker cash prices this week put additional pressure on futures.
Last week, cattle traded at about $260 per hundredweight in the cash market, steady to about $3 lower from the previous week, traders said. Cash prices remained well above nearby live cattle futures.
In CME's lean hog market, July futures slid 0.275 cent to 100.125 cents per pound.
