Placements into the nation’s feedlots fell sharply under what the trade was anticipating- with a drop of 12% for placements in the Friday report compared to one year ago.
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 April 1, 2024. The inventory was 1% above April 1, 2023, USDA NASS reported on Friday- the full report available here.
The inventory included 7.27 million steers and steer calves, up 2% from the previous year. This group accounted for 61% of the total inventory. Heifers and heifer calves accounted for 4.56 million head, up 1% from 2023.
Placements in feedlots during March totaled 1.75 million head, 12% below 2023. Net placements were 1.69 million head. During March, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds were 330,000 head, 600-699 pounds were 260,000 head, 700-799 pounds were 460,000 head, 800-899 pounds were 466,000 head, 900-999 pounds were 170,000 head, and 1,000 pounds and greater were 60,000 head.
Marketings of fed cattle during March totaled 1.71 million head, 14% below 2023.
The total number on feed and the marketings were lower than expected- the placements were sharply lower than expected.
DTN Analyst ShayLe Stewart calls the report a sweet surprise to cattle market watchers. “To break the placement data down more thoroughly, there were exactly 1,746,000 head of feeder cattle placed in March of 2024, which is 12% less than a year ago, and 8% less than a month ago. When comparing Friday’s data to a year ago, there wasn’t one weight division that saw greater placements year over year. When comparing Friday’s data to the placements seen last month, the only weight division that saw greater month-over-month placements was the feeders weighing 1,000 pounds or more. And the only states that saw greater month-over-month placements were Texas (up 3%) and Oklahoma (up 8%), which could be being influenced by feeder cattle imports from Mexico.
“Analysts forecast total on-feed numbers to be around 102% of a year ago, but to the market’s surprise, total on-feed numbers came in at 11,838,000 head, which is just 1% more than a year ago.
Since this is a quarterly cattle on feed report- Oklahoma numbers are reported- and NASS says “
Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in Oklahoma feedlots with capacity of 1,000 head or more totaled
330 thousand head on April 1, 2024, up 27 percent from a year ago. Producers placed 41 thousand head in
commercial feedlots during March, down 5 percent from a year ago. Oklahoma commercial feeders marketed
40 thousand head during March, down 23 percent from 2023. Other disappearance during March totaled
1 thousand head, unchanged from a year ago.”
Review the Texas and Oklahoma numbers in the PDF below:
