CHICAGO, March 19 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) lean hog futures declined on Tuesday, pressured by softening packer margins and profit-taking a day after the most-active June contract set a life-of-contract high, traders said.

"Funds came in with a pretty good-sized long position, and we may be suffering from profit taking," said Sterling Smith, director of agricultural research at AgriSompo North America.

CME June hogs settled Tuesday down 1.775 cents at 101.250 cents per pound, staying well short of Monday's contract high of 103.475 cents. Front-month April hogs ended down 1 cent at 85.825 cents per pound.

Cooling packer margins could weigh on cash hog prices, which have been firming since the start of the calendar year. Estimated profit margins for pork processors fell to $16.20 per hog, Denver-based livestock marketing advisory service HedgersEdge.com LLC said on Tuesday, down from $17.10 a day earlier and $24.75 a week ago.

"Cash hog prices have moved up meaningfully but seem to have plateaued," Smith said. "We need to watch cash prices (and) make sure we don't see a pullback ... that could weigh on futures," Smith said.

In the wholesale pork market, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) priced the carcass cutout late Tuesday at $93.37 per hundredweight (cwt), up 21 cents from Monday.

Live cattle futures ended lower in lackluster trade.

CME April live cattle futures settled down 0.525 cent at 188.050 cents per pound and most-active June cattle fell 0.400 cent to end at 185.0 cents. Both contracts stayed inside of the previous day's trading range.

CME April feeder cattle ended down 0.025 cent at 255.075 cents per pound and May feeders fell 0.200 cent to settle at 258.925 cents.

The USDA reported the choice boxed beef cutout on Tuesday afternoon at $313.22 per hundredweight (cwt), down 11 cents from Monday's six-month high of $313.33.

Ahead of the USDA's monthly Cattle on Feed report on Friday, analysts surveyed by Reuters on average estimated the number of cattle placed into U.S. feedlots during February at 1.849 million head, up 6.4% from the same month a year ago.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Ravi Prakash Kumar)