Feeder cattle saw a typical holiday period as some auctions started to shut down close to the Christmas holiday week. There was 20,300 head of feeder cattle at the test auctions that were open and prices were topping out either side of steady, but the groups that saw the biggest declines last week rebounded higher this week.

Slaughter cow receipts at test auctions continued to drop, which is normal at the end of the fall runs. But this is the last good run prior to the two-week holiday shutdowns, so prices were $1-3 higher even though the cow meat prices have been dropping because packers were pushing hard to get enough numbers for the next few weeks.