Against a backdrop of rising cattle and calf prices and falling wholesale beef prices, USDA is to release the final Cattle on Feed report of the year on December 23rd. Cattle producers in the South are significant suppliers of feeder cattle throughout the Plains and Corn Belt.
Both feedlot marketings and placements in November 2021 are expected to be about 4.5 percent larger than November 2020. There was one more slaughter day this November implying slightly lower daily average marketings than last year. If correct, these marketings would also be larger than in 2019. While placements this year are expected to be larger than in 2020, if the estimates are correct, they would be fewer than in each November from 2017 to 2019. Fewer feeder cattle were imported from Mexico during the month while slightly more were imported from Canada. Placements in the expected range would follow the normal pattern of declining sharply from October’s placements.
The combination of marketings and placements leaves the number of cattle on feed slightly below last year. On feed inventories typically increase from November to December and the December inventory is often the highest for the year. December 2021 should be an exception to that with on-feed inventories in February being larger. If the estimates are correct, this December would be the 6th consecutive month with fewer cattle on feed than the year before.
Merry Christmas!
Anderson, David. “More Cattle Placed and Marketed Expected.” Southern Ag Today 1(52.2). December 21, 2021. Permalink
