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Cattle on feed and placements outside upper end of pre-report expectations
The USDA says cattle placements into feedlots declined 2 percent on the year.
University of Missouri livestock economist Scott Brown says that’s outside the upper-end of pre-report expectations.
“Imports matter in this discussion (and) we are seeing pretty heavy imports, which is not surprising when we talk about record or near-record prices to see cattle moving into the U.S. to try to fill feedlots.”
He tells Brownfield cattle are still being pulled forward, which means supplies could get tighter later in 2024.
Brown says there’s still no indication that the U.S. cattle herd has any thoughts of expansion.
“Beef cows, we’ve talked about bigger cuts of beef cow slaughter earlier in the year, but November of ’23 was down just .8 of a percent relative to November of 2022. Which actually tells me we’re accelerating beef cow slaughter a little bit as we’ve gone further into 2023.”
The USDA had total Cattle on Feed December 1 up 3% on the year, also outside the upper end of pre-report estimates.
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