USDA’s monthly cattle on feed report for 1 April will be released tomorrow. Analysts’ pre-report consensus estimates are for the total inventory on feed to be 99.3 percent of last year. Those estimates imply an on-feed inventory of 11.6 million head.
The big line item to watch again this month will be the March placement data, as it has been the wild card for several months. But based on Dow Jones' survey of analysts, the range of placement estimates is not as wide this month, and most believe that they will land somewhere around 93.5 percent of year-ago levels, or an implied total of 1.72 million head. It is worth noting that 2025 placements were lower in February, at 1.554 million head, the largest decline in February placeme...
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...
