LIVESTOCK-US cattle futures plunge on fears over beef prices, Mexico border

(Recasts; updates with closing prices for cattle and hogs; adds quote) By Julie Ingwersen CHICAGO, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Most Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle and feeder cattle futures contracts fell their respective daily limits on Friday, as U.S. efforts to lower historically high beef prices sparked a round of long liquidation by speculators, analysts said. Brokers also cited planned talks about whether to reopen the U.S. border to Mexican cattle amid an outbreak of the flesh-eating screw worm parasite. Mexico's agriculture minister will travel to Washington next week with the aim of reaching an agreement on the reopening of the border, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday. News of the border discussions followed this week's White House plan to lower beef prices by allowing more imports of Argentine beef, a move that angered U.S. cattle ranchers. "This is a much bigger deal that beef from Argentina," Doug Houghton, analyst with Brock Associates, said of the U.S.-Mexico border talks. "It seems questionable that the U.S. would allow the border to reopen anytime soon with (screwworm) still a significant issue," Houghton added. The U.S. border has been closed to Mexican cattle since May. CME benchmark December live cattle futures settled down the daily maximum of 7.250 cents at 233.925 cents per pound. CME November feeder cattle ended down their limit of 9.250 cents, at 352.200 cents per pound. Daily limits will expand to 10.75 cents per pound for live cattle futures and 13.75 cents for feeder cattle for Monday's trading session, the CME announced. Both markets had tumbled last week and again on Wednesday after Trump sought to reduce historically high beef prices. Cattle prices have soared after a years-long drought burned up grazing land and hiked feeding costs, forcing ranchers to slash their herds. "Managed money has a huge net long in the cattle market and has for a while," said Austin Schroeder, commodity analyst for Brugler Marketing & Management. "With all the headlines that we've got over the last week and a half, I would assume there is just some general risk-off (trade) heading into the weekend. Everybody is wanting out, and the door is only so big," Schroeder said. In the hog market, CME lean hog futures closed narrowly mixed on Friday with December up 0.125 cent at 81.900 cents per pound and February down 0.050 cent at 84.300 cents. The USDA priced pork carcasses at $102.74 per hundredweight on Friday afternoon, up $3.03 from Thursday. (Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Sahal Muhammed; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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