Slaughter cattle prices have been stable with a slight positive bias to start 2019. The trend has been consistent with expectations driven by basis premiums in futures market prices relative to the spot cash market trade in late 2018. Trade volumes through the first three weeks of the year are running short of a year ago by half a percent. Larger trade volume (compared to a year earlier) in the first week has been offset by slight declines in the following two weeks. Read more…