Chicago Mercantile Exchange live and feeder cattle were higher with boxed beef up at midday, expecting a bullish USDA Cattle Inventory report Tuesday. Those numbers are out at 3 Eastern/2 Central. February live cattle was up $2.02 at $158.75 and April was $2.52 higher at $163.35. March feeders were $.45 higher at $183.92 and April was up $.72 at $188.27.

Direct cash cattle markets were quiet. The big feature was the distribution of the week’s show list, which looks larger in Texas, but smaller in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.

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