Live Cattle Futures Steady

February live cattle is trading at 118.05, up 0.07 cents/lb. April live cattle is trading at 115.95, up 0.20 cents/lb. Live cattle futures are trading steady just after the open. Thursday's USDA estimated cattle slaughter was 116,000 head, the total cattle slaughter for the week is now 354,000 head. Dressed steer weights for the week ending December 17th were at 908 pounds, unchanged from the previous week. Beef production for that week totaled 507.3 million pounds, up 3.3 percent versus a year ago.