Brett Wessler, Staff Writer   |   Updated: July 31, 2012

Last week’s cash market was higher for the first time in three weeks, gaining $1.36. The rebound leads industry experts to believe the market has reached a bottom and improvements will continue this week. Industry professionals are forecasting an increase of $1.83 in the average price for cash cattle, setting the Monday Market Sentiment at $116.03.

The Monday Market Sentiment is a forecast of the upcoming weekly cash trade (5-Area weighted average price) prices reported by the USDA. Last week’s cash market increased by more than a dollar for the first time in almost two months. The USDA announced that cash trade for the week ending July 27th was $114.20.

Gains last week allowed the cash market to recover about a third of the losses amassed over the previous two weeks. The higher market price improves cattle feeding margins, however high feed costs have feedyards losing more than $250 per animal sent to market.

Each week the Cattle Trader Center, on behalf of Vance Publishing, awards a $100 gift certificate from Cabela's to the industry leader whose forecast comes closest to the 5-Area cash trade number reported by the USDA. The most recent winner was Scott Keeling, Keeling Feeders.

Join our team of industry professionals to predict this week's cash trade. Click here for contest rules. Click here to register.