After the dozens of gloom and doom posts over the last few weeks, I was quite surprised this morning to see that no one has posted anything about the phenomenal jump in cattle prices yesterday.  
Typical bids on Thursday were $120 (and some cattle sold for that according to USDA).
Yesterday, some cattle sold for $131 live picked up at the yard.  Earlier yesterday, another packer bid $127 on 24 pens if he could get all of them in the next week - feedlot turned that one down, sensing that better bids were coming.
So, are we back to a "normal" range or is this a short lived rally?  I have to say it took my by surprise - I expected to get back above $130, but not until sometime in November or December.