Monday Market Sentiment: Industry leaders predict higher cash cattle prices

A survey of cattle-industry leaders suggests the average price for cash cattle will increase $0.68 to $106.89 per cwt this week.

The Monday Market Sentiment is a forecast of the upcoming weekly cash trade (5-Area weighted average price) prices reported by the USDA. This week prices increased for the second consecutive week. Last week the USDA announced that cash trade for the week ending February 13th was 106.21, a 24 percent increase from a year earlier.

Among the reasons cited for the predictions were higher beef prices and a bump up for live cattle futures.

Each week CattleNetwork awards a $100 gift certificate from Cabela's courtesy of Intervet/Schering Plough to the industry leader whose forecast comes closest to the 5-Area cash trade number reported by the USDA. The most recent winner was Scott Keeling of Keeling Cattle Feeders.

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