After the recent partial government shutdown, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service has been working to catch up on reports that were not released on time. Friday, they put out the February Cattle on Feed Report which shows the number of cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the U.S. feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on February 1, 2019. The inventory was slightly above February 1, 2018. But according to a story from Gary Crawford, the report shows placements in feedlots during January totaled 1.96 million head, 5 percent below 2018.
Marketing’s of fed cattle during January totaled 1.91 million head, 3 percent above 2018. And USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam also has a look at USDA’s new forecast for 2019 average steer prices.