Brett Wessler, Staff Writer   |   Updated: May 30, 2012

A survey of cattle-industry leaders suggests the average price for cash cattle will fall for a second consecutive week with European dept worries affecting markets. Market experts predict the cash market will remain steady with a small decline of 19 cents to $121.14 per cwt this week.

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 prices fell $1.85, losing most of the previous week’s gains. The USDA announced that cash trade for the week was $121.33 in the week leading up to the Memorial day weekend.

Although cash cattle are selling almost twenty dollars above last year’s prices, high feed costs have feeders seeing negative margins. Beef demand remains intact following Memorial Day weekend which will help cash market prices from falling lower and prices may improve if supply is limited. Packers are expected to offer lower bids this week to keep their margins in the black as profits were limited to nine dollars per head last week.

Each week Drovers CattleNetwork 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 Mike Binns, Brookover Cattle.