Cattle On Feed Numbers Remain High

The USDA's most recent cattle feed lot report shows a lot of activity nationwide. First, the inventory of cattle and calves in feedlots (with capacity of 1,000 head or more) was 11.4 million head as of September 1st. According to USDA Livestock Analyst Shayle Shagam, that was the highest inventory level since 1996.

"Despite the fact that returns for cattle feeders during August were negative they were still putting large numbers of animals on feed."

He added just over two million head last month, more than 9 % more than August of 2019. Shagam said there are several reasons for the increase.

"There are some areas, especially in the inner mountain region where extremely dry which might have encouraged producers to be offering those cattle. We did see fairly large placements in Colorado during August."

As to the backlog of cattle in feedlots that built up in April in May, Shagam says meat processing facilities have worked through those high numbers.
But, he added, looking at the percentage of the feedlot inventory on feed for over 150 days, that number Shagam noted is still a little bit high compared to pre-COVID-19 numbers.

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