Chicago Mercantile Exchange live and feeder cattle were sharply higher, optimistic about the week’s direct business, which started to develop during the session. There was also support from the lack of avian influenza in ground beef samples and the solid weekly export sales numbers. The USDA says beef export sales were a marketing year high at 22,500 tons, up 48% from the week ending April 18th and 38% from the four-week average, with South Korea and Japan leading the way.

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