Cattle on Feed Marketings Smallest in Report History

COLLEGE STATION, TX – Despite a wide range of industry expectations for cattle on feed in the United States, Friday’s USDA report for June showed an inventory just slightly lower than this time one year ago. Officially, the Cattle on Feed report projects the current feedlot inventory to be 11.7 million head as of June 1, 2020, which represents the second-highest June 1 inventory since the series began 24 years ago. Placements of 1.97 million head in feedlots in May were just 1 percent lower than the same time last year. The real news came in USDA’s marketing numbers with May’s projections to be 1.5 million head, or 28 percent less than 2019. This represents the lowest level of marketings for May since 1996. According to Dr. David Anderson, Professor and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Livestock Marketing Economist, in the month of May, there were two fewer days than in 2019, which helps explain the lower numbers. There’s no doubt that some of the numbers reflect the challenges the industry has had through the COVID-19 pandemic, of keeping packing plants up and running and meeting the demand. A very surprising statistic, Anderson says, is that we actually produced more beef last week than the same week a year ago. The larger weights are contributing to more beef in the supermarkets and it appears that the logjam may be breaking.
(SOURCE: USDA)