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Cattle producers still facing pressure

Drought and input costs continue to impact the size of the nation’s cattle herd.

University of Missouri livestock economist Scott Brown says while placements have slowed, they are still holding strong.  “When you start looking at those placements by weight group the one that sticks out to me is the less than 600-pound category up 25,000 head relative to where we were a year ago,” he says.  “That’s really why we got placements as strong as we did in August.”

He tells Brownfield more heifers are being placed in feedlots and there are still a lot of beef cows being slaughtered.  “Slowing the rate of growth is still liquidation,” he says.  “Unlike if we were to talk about less amount of slaughter.”

The latest Cattle on Feed report had placements into Feedlots during August just slightly above year-ago levels, On Feed numbers were up 1% on the year. 

The report is considered neutral to markets.