USDA released two key cattle reports today: the monthly Cattle on Feed report and the semi-annual Cattle Inventory report. The surprise in the Cattle on Feed report was the number of placements, however, it was less of a surprise for those who read Matt Herrington’s forecast on Wednesday of this week. WPI’s model pegged the placement number at 102.4 percent of last year. Following is a summary of today’s report.
Notably, June was the fourth consecutive month placements exceeded pre-report expectations. The pace of placements for the first half of the year could start to undermine expected placements in the second half of the year given the state of feeder cattle supplies outside of feedlots (see more on that below).&nb...
Key Market Insights The broad market is locked in on this week’s Trump-Xi meeting in Beijing, but this is no longer just a trade summit. Increasingly, the meeting is becoming tied directly to Iran, energy security, and the growing global economic fallout from disruptions through the Strai...
