Trading following the holiday break was slow with minimal activity. A few sellers reported little business over the Thanksgiving holiday break during the second half of last week, except for cow hide trading at steady to current market price levels and butt branded steer hides trading $0.50.
A hide seller focused in tanning for the luxury industry reported a slowdown in volume orders in recent weeks.
Another seller noted that the buying interest that they had received was for shipment ahead of Chinese Lunar New Year.

Cattle Slaughter Forecast

Cattle slaughter is forecast by The Jacobsen at 645,00 head this week, up 19.89 percent from last week but down 2.35 percent from last year. Cattle slaughter finished last week at an estimated 538,000 head, down 15.41 percent from the week prior and down 8.66 percent from last year. Over the next six weeks, slaughter is forecasted at an average of 599,170 head per week, up…