The US hide market has come off of the Thanksgiving break at steady pricing. Dairy Cows (DC) and Bulls (BB) haven’t had any improvement on price, but buyers are still interested at current levels. Furniture and auto upholstery business continues to do well, whereas footwear is still lagging behind last year’s already low levels. 

The Jacobsen slaughter forecast for this week is 670,000 head, and if realized, will be 12,100 head less than the same week last year when it was 682,100.

Cattle slaughter finished last week 564,000 head, up 1.6 percent from a year ago. Over the next six weeks, slaughter is forecasted at an average of 592,500 head, down an average of 6.5 percent from the prior six weeks and down 3.5 percent compared to last year. 

Figure 1. 

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