The June cattle on feed report showed trend changes from previous months. USDA livestock analyst Michael McConnell shared his thoughts on the June report.
“11.68 million head of cattle on feedlots with a capacity larger than a thousand head. That was 2% higher than this time last year. There was 1.7 million head of cattle placed in feedlots during May. That was 10% lower than a year ago,” said McConnell.
“And 1.55 million head of cattle that were marketed out of feedlots. That was 12% lower than a year ago. We still have more cattle in feedlots than we did a year ago,” McConnell added.
McConnell also said, “A lot of that is coming though just because we have relatively slower flows going into and out of feedlots. It has improved a little bit from a month ago and over the past couple weeks, particularly in the southeast part of the country. But overall, high cattle supplies is what’s driving the day in the sense of your animals out there and they’re much pricier than they have been in past years.”
“That’s encouraging a lot of cow-calf operators to, I think, keep their animals on pasture. One positive thing that we’ve seen is that while we still have some drought conditions in many parts of the country, including many important cow-calf regions in the country, it has improved a little bit from a month ago and over the past couple weeks, particularly in the southeast part of the country. Some improvements may be lessening some of the urgency to place animals that are on pasture right now and provide some more runway and some additional time for animals to stay on pasture rather than being placed in feedlots,” McConnell said.
Audio Reporting by Elizabeth Sanders for Southeast AgNet.