USDA released its monthly Cattle on Feed (COF) report on Friday. The report was neutral, with inventory, marketings and placements all coming in right at the industry average pre-report estimates. The 1 January inventory of all cattle and calves on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity was 12 million head and December placements were 1.83 million head.  

Marketings in November were 1.83 million head. The average daily marketing of cattle was 83,182 head based on 22 weekdays in December, which was one more day than the year prior. Marketings for the month reamined steady at 15.2 percent of the total inventory on feed, compared to 15.1 percent in November.

Placements by weight catgeory were the greatest for cattle...