Still lower cattle inventory year over year for USDA’s April cattle on feed report, yet continued signs of attempted inventory buildup. This is livestock analyst Anthony Fisher:
“The number of cattle on feed and feed lots on April 1 was 11.64 million head, this was about 2% below a year ago. The report showed an increase in placements which was within the range that industry analysts were expecting. The number of cattle placed in feedlots was about 1.84 million head, which was about 5% above 2024.”
Marketings of fed cattle also represented a 1% increase from this time last year. Regarding marketing trends noted both in the report and within the cattle industry…
“We look at the marketing numbers, specifically the number of cattle on feed over 150 days. This is a marker that illustrates how fast cattle are being marketed, and this number continues to grow.”
Well above a year ago in absolute terms, as well as percentage of number of cattle on feed, Fisher says this is also reflected in heavier dress, weights of slaughter cattle feed locks.
“They continue to sell fed cattle at record high prices. This underscores their willingness to pay higher prices for feeder animals.”
A real world example of this:
“The price of feeder steers weighing between 750 and 800 pounds sold at Oklahoma stockyards. This is a number that we track. It averaged about $283 per hundredweight in March. This was up 12% from a year ago. It was a record high price for the series, and it’s steadily risen the last six to nine months.”
Driven by what Fisher calls a very strong current fed cattle price.
“In March, the fed cattle price averaged nearly $208 per hundredweight. This is also a record high price for the five areas tiers that we track, and it’s up 11% from a year ago. Tt’s worth noting that April also gives us a breakout of cattle on feed for heifers and steers. On April 1, there were 4.3 8 million head of heifers and heifer calves on feed, which was about 4% below a year ago.”
With a lower percentage of heifers and heifer calves making up a total cattle-in-feedlot population than one year ago.