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Cattle on Feed Report 03/22 14:40
March 1 Cattle on Feed Up 1% From Year Ago; February Placements
Up 10%
By DTN Staff
USDA Actual Average Estimate Range
On Feed March 1 101% 100.9% 100.1-104.7%
Placed in February 110% 106.4% 102.7-108.8%
Marketed in February 103% 104.1% 103.3-104.7%
This article was originally published at 2:07 p.m. CDT on
Friday, March 22. It was last updated with additional
information at 2:40 p.m. CDT on Friday, March 22.
**
OMAHA (DTN) -- Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter
market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000
or more head totaled 11.8 million head on March 1, 2024. The
inventory was 1% above March 1, 2023, USDA NASS reported on
Friday.
Placements in feedlots during February totaled 1.89 million
head, 10% above 2023. Placements were the highest for February
since the series began in 1996. Net placements were 1.83 million
head. During February, placements of cattle and calves weighing
less than 600 pounds were 360,000 head, 600-699 pounds were
330,000 head, 700-799 pounds were 515,000 head, 800-899 pounds
were 485,000 head, 900-999 pounds were 150,000 head, and 1,000
pounds and greater were 50,000 head.
Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 1.79 million
head, 3% above 2023.
Other disappearance totaled 56,000 head during February, 3%
below 2023.
DTN ANALYSIS
"Friday's USDA Cattle on Feed report did exactly what it was
expected to do -- it showed greater placements," said DTN
Livestock Analyst ShayLe Stewart. "Analysts' pre-report
placement estimates averaged 106.4%, which is different from
what the report's actual data showed. It's likely that traders
will react negatively to Friday's report because of that sole
difference.
"I don't personally believe that the report should be viewed as
bearish because, if you only compare Friday's data to that of a
year ago, you're selecting a single trait to give merit to in
the market as opposed to looking at the market through a wider
10,000-foot view. Based on the weather challenges that happened
in January 2024, and the greater feeder cattle imports that
we've seen thus far in 2024, seeing higher placements in
February was inevitable, and the market shouldn't be taken back
by that finding. But, unfortunately, traders won't likely take
into account all of the market's weighing factors and just
choose to trade the live cattle and feeder cattle contracts
lower early next week.
"We can still learn some things from Friday's report, however.
For starters, I think it's important to understand the weights
of the cattle placed in February, as that will be telling as to
when those cattle will be showing up on showlists later this
year. Compared to a month ago, there were fewer cattle placed in
February that weighed less than 700 pounds. But compared to both
a month ago and a year ago, February placements of feeders
weighing between 700 and 1,000 pounds was greater. I also found
it interesting to note that compared to a month ago, the only
states that didn't see greater month-over-month placements were
Arizona and Idaho. All the other states represented in the
report did see greater placements compared to January 2024."
**
DTN subscribers can view the full Cattle on Feed reports in the
Livestock Archives folder under the Markets menu. The report is
also available at https://www.nass.usda.gov/.
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