Cattle on Feed Report: Placements Lighter Than Expected
USDA says cattle feedlot inventories totaled 10.725 million head on Dec. 1, roughly 100,000 head fewer than traders were anticipating. This is second lowest Dec. 1 feedlot number since USDA's current data series began in 1996. The mildly smaller-than-expected On Feed number was due to the combination of Placements coming in nearly four percentage points under expectations and Marketings slightly outpacing the pre-report guess.
| Report details | USDA | Avg. Trade Guess | Range |
| % of year-ago levels | |||
| On Feed | 95 | 95.4 | 94.4-96.1 |
| Placements | 97 | 100.9 | 95.0-104.2 |
| Marketings | 95 | 94.6 | 93.7-95.7 |
A weight breakdown of calves entering feedlots last month shows all categories except 600 pounders declining from year-ago levels. Lightweight placements dropped 10.7%, 6-weights rose 13.3%, 7-weights dropped 6.0% and heavyweight placements came in 6.2% under year-ago levels in November.
The On Feed and Marketing categories were very close to the pre-report guesses, meaning there will be little impact on nearby live cattle futures from this data. But deferred cattle futures should find some support from the lower-than-expected Placements figure.
