October Cattle on Feed Report

October Cattle on Feed Report

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
USDA has been tracking and reporting monthly on cattle feedlots with capacities of 1000 head or more since 1996. And then in the latest report, there are some big and big numbers. For example, just under two and a quarter million head were placed into feedlots during September. That's on the high end of industry expectations, six percent higher than September of 2019. And even with marketings out of feedlots up six percent in September, the inventory of those feedlots as of October 1st, eleven point seven million head, four percent more than a year ago and… “the highest October1 inventory numbers since the series began in 1996.” USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam says that big placement number… “likely reflects the fact that as we got into late August into September and into September, actually we saw a rather dramatic deterioration in pasture conditions.” Shagam says we've seen record inventories in feedlots now for three straight months, and this could be partly because of problems caused back in spring and early summer when beef processing plants were hit by covid-19. “We are probably still working through some of that bulge in cattle that existed earlier in the year as a result of the plant closures, you are still moving cattle at a fairly good clip, but you're still playing catch up.
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