USDA will release its Cattle on Feed report tomorrow; the consensus pre-report analysts’ estimate is for the inventory of cattle on feed to be 101 percent of the prior year. This would be the sixth consecutive month that inventories were equal to or larger than the previous year. Prior to that, from September 2022 to September 2023 feedlot inventories were below year ago levels.
The analysts’ pre-report estimates have marketings at 104 percent of last year and placements at 106 percent of last year, the latter coming in a range of 103 to 109 percent of 2023. For both, note that this is a leap year with an extra day in February. Likewise for placements, feeder cattle imports are running ahead of last year.
However, as...
What You Need to Know Today: Markets opened double digits higher Sunday evening following the release of Chinese and American official summaries of bilateral discussions last week. They chose the more optimistic view of future Chinese purchases of American farm goods versus the more opaque inte...
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday launched an investigation into the beef industry over potential anticompetitive conduct among the nation’s largest meatpackers, his office announced Friday. He said the investigation would be conducted alongside a separate antitrust probe announ...
Update for 6 April 2025: Last year, users pointed out differences between the 5-year averages reported in this app and what USDA estimates in its weekly report. The difference exists because WPI calculates average based on the last 5 years of observations for the current week. In cases where ob...
