Trading was quiet to close out the week and the month of May. Bleachable fancy tallow seems to have settled at or near a bottom with no bids reported today and contracted volume up this week for June relative to the last couple of weeks. Demand for technical and edible tallow remain strong and there is continued risk for high prices while supply remains limited. Cattle slaughter has increased this week and is expected to continue higher through June, but strong trim demand and the potential for more of the fruits of the cutting floor to end up in the box and less in the rendering stream make a linear increase in premium tallow tied to increased slaughter unlikely.

Figure 1.

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