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Cattle on Feed Report     03/22  14:40

March 1 Cattle on Feed Up 1% From Year Ago; February Placements 
Up 10%

By DTN Staff

                      USDA Actual   Average Estimate       Range
On Feed March 1           101%          100.9%      100.1-104.7%
Placed in February        110%          106.4%      102.7-108.8%
Marketed in February      103%          104.1%      103.3-104.7%

This article was originally published at 2:07 p.m. CDT on 
Friday, March 22. It was last updated with additional 
information at 2:40 p.m. CDT on Friday, March 22.

**

OMAHA (DTN) -- Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter 
market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 
or more head totaled 11.8 million head on March 1, 2024. The 
inventory was 1% above March 1, 2023, USDA NASS reported on 
Friday.

Placements in feedlots during February totaled 1.89 million 
head, 10% above 2023. Placements were the highest for February 
since the series began in 1996. Net placements were 1.83 million 
head. During February, placements of cattle and calves weighing 
less than 600 pounds were 360,000 head, 600-699 pounds were 
330,000 head, 700-799 pounds were 515,000 head, 800-899 pounds 
were 485,000 head, 900-999 pounds were 150,000 head, and 1,000 
pounds and greater were 50,000 head. 

Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 1.79 million 
head, 3% above 2023.

Other disappearance totaled 56,000 head during February, 3% 
below 2023.

DTN ANALYSIS

"Friday's USDA Cattle on Feed report did exactly what it was 
expected to do -- it showed greater placements," said DTN 
Livestock Analyst ShayLe Stewart. "Analysts' pre-report 
placement estimates averaged 106.4%, which is different from 
what the report's actual data showed. It's likely that traders 
will react negatively to Friday's report because of that sole 
difference.
 
"I don't personally believe that the report should be viewed as 
bearish because, if you only compare Friday's data to that of a 
year ago, you're selecting a single trait to give merit to in 
the market as opposed to looking at the market through a wider 
10,000-foot view. Based on the weather challenges that happened 
in January 2024, and the greater feeder cattle imports that 
we've seen thus far in 2024, seeing higher placements in 
February was inevitable, and the market shouldn't be taken back 
by that finding. But, unfortunately, traders won't likely take 
into account all of the market's weighing factors and just 
choose to trade the live cattle and feeder cattle contracts 
lower early next week. 

"We can still learn some things from Friday's report, however. 
For starters, I think it's important to understand the weights 
of the cattle placed in February, as that will be telling as to 
when those cattle will be showing up on showlists later this 
year. Compared to a month ago, there were fewer cattle placed in 
February that weighed less than 700 pounds. But compared to both 
a month ago and a year ago, February placements of feeders 
weighing between 700 and 1,000 pounds was greater. I also found 
it interesting to note that compared to a month ago, the only 
states that didn't see greater month-over-month placements were 
Arizona and Idaho. All the other states represented in the 
report did see greater placements compared to January 2024."

**

DTN subscribers can view the full Cattle on Feed reports in the 
Livestock Archives folder under the Markets menu. The report is 
also available at https://www.nass.usda.gov/.


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