CHICAGO, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures rallied on Wednesday to their highest level in nearly four weeks, while feeder cattle also stormed higher.
U.S. cattle supplies are tight as drought reduced the amount of pasture available for grazing and drove producers to send more cattle to slaughter over the last year.
"The consumer is still buying beef at a faster pace than we thought," said Arlan Suderman, chief commodities economist for brokerage StoneX. "We have rationed expert demand, but we have not rationed domestic demand like we thought it would."
October live cattle settled 2.750 cents higher at 182.700 cents per pound and touched their highest price since Aug. 10.
Brokers said there were no confirmed cash cattle trades that would have sparked the rally in futures.
There was unconfirmed talk of cash trades around $179 per cwt in Kansas, which would have been firmer than the market was expecting, Suderman said. Last week, cash cattle traded in Kansas for around $178 per cwt.
Live cattle futures hit record highs this summer on supply concerns but have been in a sideways trading pattern for weeks, analysts said. Wednesday's gains fueled some expectations the market could make a breakout move to the upside.
"It's still an overall sideways trend but we're looking like there's potential for the market to retest the contract highs we made in July," said Doug Houghton, analyst for Brock Associates.
October feeder cattle ended up 2.175 cents at 256.475 cents per pound.
Boxed beef prices were lower, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, with choice cuts dropping $1.91 to $313.57 per cwt and select cuts sliding $1.93 to $287.61 per cwt.
In the pork market, most-active October lean hog futures ended down 1.3 cents at 81.875 cents per pound and touched its lowest price in a week.
The USDA quoted the wholesale pork carcass cutout at $98.33 per cwt, down $0.54. (Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
