11/22/06 Record feedlot numbers

For the third month in a row we have a record number of cattle in US feedlots. There were 12 million in November, four percent above the same month a year ago. SHAGAM "Which is a record for the month going back as far as the series has been in existence which is 1996." But placements in feedlots were down 13 percent in October and USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam says there are several implications from all of this. SHAGAM "We're starting to run out of cattle outside of feedlots. We placed a large number of cattle earlier in the year just as forage conditions deteriorated and the numbers of cattle outside the feedlots has been diminishing over time. That would tend to support cattle prices later on. But the second implication is the October marketing of animals out of the feedlots which was just two percent above a year ago. SHAGAM "It implies that they are probably more market ready animals which will be coming out of the feed lots in the next couple of months. So in that respect it will probably put some pressure on fed cattle prices as these animals do come out of the feed lots." The market-out numbers were lower than expected. The bottom line says Shagam is that cattle prices could go up or they could be dragged down. He expects to see cattle prices to say about the same as they are today, meaning they should hover around the mid-80's per hundredweight well into 2007. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott