USDA’s monthly Cattle on Feed report will be released tomorrow. Analysts’ pre-report consensus estimates are for the total inventory on feed to be 98.5 percent of last year with the range of estimates between an incredibly tight 98.3 percent and 98.8 percent of 1 May 2024.  

Nonetheless, Friday's report will likely be viewed as friendly by the market, but with markets closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday, it's not likely that the report will have much effect on Tuesday. Placements in April are pegged at 97.1 percent in a range of 95.4 percent to 98 percent. If accurate, those predictions would put placements at 1.605 million head, the lowest since April 2020, which was during COVID. Feeder cattle sales were d...