The Beef... Cassie Fish, http://cassandrafish.com
It was rather comical that many think Friday’s USDA Cattle-on-Feed report was bearish. Perhaps the awareness that there is a small, and growing smaller, finite pool of feeder cattle for placement available to be fed and consumed between now and the end of 2024 is escaping market observers?
The extra placements in March, which occurred mostly in Texas due to severe drought conditions, were merely stockers that would have been spread out into April and May in a normal year. So with Texas March placements up 5 percent, overall the industry placed more cattle than analyst estimates which was viewed by some as bearish. This was the seventh consecutive month of placements below a year ago, totaling over 700,000 fewer placements.
'The Beef' is published by Consolidated Beef Producers
