From staff reports STILLWATER – An Oklahoma State University Livestock Market Economist analyzed the recently released April Cattle on Feed Report, which indicates a decrease in cattle feed-lot placements and marketings.
“This April Cattle on Feed Report put placements in the month of March down 12% from a year ago,” Oklahoma State University Livestock Market Economist Derrell Peel said. “Marketings in the month of March were down 14% from a year ago. The April 1 on-feed total was 11.82 million head, which is still up 1% over last year’s numbers.”
Despite this, Peel said feedlot inventories are larger than the prior year for the seventh consecutive month, but there have been months with surprisingly large placements.
“If you look at the last six months, on average, placements have been down about 2.5% if you sum them up for the whole six months, and that would explain most of the cattle that are in the feedlot right now,” he said. “If you look at the trend over time, we are placing less cattle because there is less cattle and we know that.We have known that for quite some time.”
When analyzing the monthly percentage of cattle on feed, Peel said the last 12-month average is the slowest marketing pace since 1997.
“We have slowed down the marketing pace and that means that feedlots are leaving the animals that they do have in the feedlot longer,” he said.
Evidenced by carcass weight analysis, Peel said feedlots are maintaining their inventories by holding cattle longer. While beef production is falling, he said increasing carcass weights can offset this somewhat.
“We are running about 25 pounds heavier than a year ago on steer carcass weights on average for the last four or five weeks,” Peel said.