USDA released the monthly Cattle on Feed report today; the total inventory of cattle on feed in feedlots of 1,000 head or more capacity was 11.1 million head. Following is a summary of today’s report.

Again, following a theme for this year so far, the report was in line with pre-report expectations, except for placements – which is the most difficult category to predict, but the past six months have been exceptionally difficult. August placements surprised to the upside by 1 percent – or slightly more. The actual Olympic average of the pre-report analysts’ expectations was 93.6 percent of last year (rounded up to 94 percent). So, placements were 1.4 percent larger than last year which given the thin state of the f...