Imported cattle are reported in the same series and never enter a US average. Live and dressed are kept apart; they are different weight bases and cannot be averaged together.
Steers and heifers, FOB and delivered combined — USDA also publishes the steer, heifer and mixed splits of this same total, which are not added back in. Dairy-bred cattle are reported separately and excluded.
The pool has been shrinking for a decade. Negotiated cash averaged 106,378 head a week in 2017 against 67,406 in 2025 — down 37%, and lower than the year before it in 5 of 8 years.
The fewer cattle that change hands in the open, the fewer head the price everyone else is paid rests on.
Only full calendar years are compared, so neither end is a part-year. This is not a week-to-week wobble, and it is not a trading signal either — it is the base the whole market is priced from.
| How the cattle moved | Head | Share | Sets the price? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negotiated cash | 90,762 | 25.6% | Yes — this is the market |
| Formula | 223,976 | 63.2% | No — priced off the cash trade |
| Negotiated grid | 27,582 | 7.8% | Base priced off the cash trade |
| Forward contract | 12,226 | 3.4% | No — committed in advance |
In Nebraska, negotiated cash trade was limited on moderate demand Thursday and active on very good demand Friday. For the week, live purchases were 3.00-5.00 higher from 225.00-227.00, and dressed purchases were 5.00-10.00 higher from 350.00-355.00. In the Western Cornbelt, negotiated cash trade was moderate on moderate to good demand Thursday and active on very good demand Friday. For the week, live purchases were 4.00 higher from 220.00-225.00, mostly 224.00, and dressed purchases were 5.00-10.00 higher at mostly 350.00-355.00.
| Region | Oct 9 | Oct 12 | Oct 13 | Oct 14 | Oct 15 | Oct 16 | Oct 19 | Oct 20 | Oct 21 | Oct 22 | Days with no trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TX-OK-NM | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 10 of 10 |
| Kansas | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 10 of 10 |
| Nebraska | 5,114 | — | — | — | 571 | 14,341 | — | — | — | — | 7 of 10 |
| Iowa-Minnesota | 2,848 | — | — | — | 1,709 | 8,132 | — | — | — | — | 7 of 10 |
Packers are required to report under Livestock Mandatory Reporting — a blank is not a packer skipping paperwork, and not a gap on our side. USDA publishes nothing when either no cash trade happened at all, or so few packers bought that printing the number would identify one of them: it withholds when fewer than three buyers report, or when one buyer accounts for more than 70% of the volume.
A region that stays blank week after week is telling you either that packers have stopped bidding in the open market, or that too few of them are bidding for the price to be published safely.
Only days where every input reported are plotted — a missing drop credit reads roughly $160 a head too low and would overstate the case.
Drop credit is the hide, offal and everything off the carcass that is not beef. USDA prices it daily per 100 lb of live weight; it moves about once a week, so the change above is measured against the last reading that differed, and the figure shown is USDA-final.
| Region | Trade | Price | Avg wt | Head | Days traded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa-Minnesota | Dressed Delivered | $353.40 | 1,019 | 3,231 | 2 |
| Iowa-Minnesota | Dressed FOB | $350.84 | 924 | 679 | 2 |
| Iowa-Minnesota | Live Delivered | $225.48 | 1,487 | 73 | 1 |
| Iowa-Minnesota | Live FOB | $223.03 | 1,548 | 5,858 | 2 |
| Nebraska | Dressed Delivered | $351.23 | 985 | 9,484 | 2 |
| Nebraska | Dressed FOB | $354.00 | 1,009 | 639 | 1 |
| Nebraska | Live FOB | $225.01 | 1,580 | 4,789 | 1 |
All beef type, total all grades, weighted by head across the week. Fed cattle trade on a weekly rhythm, so a single day is rarely the market. Grid and formula volume is reported separately and is never blended into these averages.
Daily reporting covers Texas-Oklahoma-New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa-Minnesota.
The oldest week USDA's weekly series currently holds (May 15, 23 weeks of data) — not a year-ago figure, which this weekly series does not reach back far enough to give.