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Beef packer margins jumped into the black last week while cattle feeders saw their margins improve $88 per head, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker.

A $4 per cwt. rally in cash fed cattle prices reduced losses for fed cattle to less than $50 per head last week.

Unfortunately, yes.

Beef packers saw their margins jump $51 per head higher last week, ending with profits more than $83.

Cattle feeding losses nearly doubled last week as cash fed cattle prices declined another $2 per cwt.

Already facing steep losses, cattle feeders saw their margins decline further in a dismal pre-Labor Day market.

The adjectives have all been used to describe the despair that is cattle feeding. Last week was simply worse than the week before, which was a train wreck.

Calculated breakeven prices for cattle shipped from feedyards last week were $170.12, according to Sterling Marketing, Vale, Ore.

Uncharted territory. That’s where America’s cattle feeding industry finds itself as fed cattle lose $611 per head.

Feedyard closeouts saw a $100 per head improvement last week, bringing losses under the $300 per head mark for the first time in months.