CHICAGO, March 21 (Reuters) - Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) live cattle futures closed mixed on Thursday, with the nearby April contract firming on strong cash cattle markets and rising beef prices, traders said.

But deferred futures declined in what appeared to be technical moves, with the most-active June contract ending lower after a choppy session.

CME April live cattle futures settled up 0.575 cent at 188.375 cents per pound, while benchmark June cattle closed down 0.275 cent at 184.500 cents. May feeder cattle ended down 0.725 cent at 258.075 cents per pound.

In cash markets, cattle traded at around $188 per hundredweight (cwt) in Texas and Kansas, up about $2 from last week, while farther north, in Nebraska and Iowa, trades were mostly at $190 per cwt with a few as high as $191.

Wholesale beef prices firmed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported the choice boxed beef cutout on Thursday afternoon at $313.73 per cwt, up 29 cents from Wednesday and the highest reading since Sept. 5.

Cattle futures were pressured by news that National Beef Packing Company, one of four major U.S. beef processors, suspended production at its Liberal, Kansas, plant on Thursday after a fire, a factor that could bottle up supplies of market-ready cattle. However, traders expected only a short-term disruption at the site.

Meanwhile, brokers await Friday's monthly Cattle on Feed report from the USDA. 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 a year earlier.

CME lean hog futures closed mostly lower. CME June hogs settled down 1.325 cents at 99.300 cents per pound, retreating further from a contract high set on Monday at 103.475 cents. Front-month April hogs ended down 0.400 cent at 84.900 cents.

The USDA priced the pork carcass cutout late Thursday at $92.08 per cwt, down 10 cents from Wednesday.

In its weekly export sales rundown, the USDA reported U.S. pork sales in the week to March 14 at 33,800 metric tons, up 36% from the previous week and 10% from the prior four-week average.

Beef export sales totaled 11,000 tons, a marketing-year low that was down 2% from the previous week and 12% from the prior four-week average.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)