beef

Slight Drop in Cattle on Feed Numbers

Clint Thompson Alabama, Beef, Beef, Cattle, Florida, Georgia

Pictured are beef cattle.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released its June Cattle on Feed Report. It shows the number of cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the U.S. for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.7 million head on June 1, 2020. That is slightly below June 1, 2019 and the second highest June 1 inventory since the series began in 1996. According to a story from Gary Crawford, there are signs of improvement for the beef cattle industry after seeing a rough month in May.

Placements in feedlots during May totaled 2.04 million head, 1% below 2019. Marketing of fed cattle during May totaled 1.50 million head, 28% below 2019, which is the lowest for May since the series began in 1996.