Cattle on feed, placements up, feedyards down
John Maday, Managing Editor | Updated: February 19, 2011 |
From Drovers website:
USDA’s February Cattle on Feed report shows February 1 feedyard inventories at 11.6 million head, up 6 percent from a year earlier. With the market providing plenty of optimism, placements in feedlots during January totaled 1.90 million, up 4 percent from January 2010. Feedyards placed more cattle than they sold during January, with marketings totaling 1.78 million head, up slightly from last year.
Somewhat surprising is that cattle in the lightest weight category accounted for the largest increase in placements. Placements in the under-600-pounds category totaled 465,000, up from 395,000 in January 2010. Placements in the 600- to 699-pound class were up modestly, while those in the heavier weight classes – 700 to 799 and over 800 pounds – declined from those of a year ago.
My personal take on the report combined with the seasonal killer cow prices is that we're in for more upward movement on most classes of cattle. If light weight stockers have been moved forward into the lots there is less remaining for the grassers to purchase, combine that with killer cow prices which I think will approach a dollar by spring grilling season and we could see some pretty significant pricing. Of course we don't know about the unknown so who knows. :lol:
John Maday, Managing Editor | Updated: February 19, 2011 |
From Drovers website:
USDA’s February Cattle on Feed report shows February 1 feedyard inventories at 11.6 million head, up 6 percent from a year earlier. With the market providing plenty of optimism, placements in feedlots during January totaled 1.90 million, up 4 percent from January 2010. Feedyards placed more cattle than they sold during January, with marketings totaling 1.78 million head, up slightly from last year.
Somewhat surprising is that cattle in the lightest weight category accounted for the largest increase in placements. Placements in the under-600-pounds category totaled 465,000, up from 395,000 in January 2010. Placements in the 600- to 699-pound class were up modestly, while those in the heavier weight classes – 700 to 799 and over 800 pounds – declined from those of a year ago.
My personal take on the report combined with the seasonal killer cow prices is that we're in for more upward movement on most classes of cattle. If light weight stockers have been moved forward into the lots there is less remaining for the grassers to purchase, combine that with killer cow prices which I think will approach a dollar by spring grilling season and we could see some pretty significant pricing. Of course we don't know about the unknown so who knows. :lol: