CHICAGO, April 26 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) cattle futures turned higher for a second session on Friday, bolstered by weakness in corn futures and signs of prices staying firm in the cash cattle market, traders said.
The cash cattle trade was active a day earlier in the Southern Plains between $181 to $184 per hundredweight (cwt), with reports of prices higher in the Corn Belt, market analysts said.
Uncertainty over the impact of the U.S. bird flu outbreak on consumer demand for beef - as well as on supplies of dairy cattle that could be sold to processors for ground beef - helped spark strength in the cash markets, market analysts said.
Colorado became the ninth U.S. state to report a dairy herd infected with bird flu on Friday, as federal lawmakers urged the Biden administration to further contain the virus' spread, and tests of milk suggested the outbreak is more widespread than previously thought.
But preliminary tests show pasteurization is effective in inactivating bird flu in retail milk samples, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
Meatpackers slaughtered an estimated 113,000 head on Friday, steady from a week ago and up from 106,140 cattle a year earlier. For hogs, slaughtering fell to 439,000 head on Friday from 480,000 hogs a week ago, and down from 450,295 hogs a year ago.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's choice beef cutout values continued to stay firm, though select cutout values eased. Pork cutout values generally firmed, though ham prices slumped, USDA data showed.
"The pork cutout prices are just not rising as quick as the market has wanted or expected," which has weighed on the hog market futures, said independent trader Dan Norcini.
Most-active CME June lean hogs settled down 2.525 cents at 102.475 cents per pound.
Actively traded CME June live cattle settled up 0.775-cent at 178.575 cents per pound. Most-active CME August feeder cattle settled up 2.250 cents at 260.550 cents. (Reporting by P.J. Huffstutter; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)
