Cattle placed into feedyards in August were down 9 percent from last year. Mississippi State University Extension ag economist Josh Maples says, “This is the lowest for any August placements number that we’ve got on record.”
He says placements have been below year-ago levels for the 10 of the past 12 months. But the trend goes back much further. “We’ve been below a year ago for the past 46 consecutive months if you look at that 12-year rolling average,” he says. “So all of this tells the story that we know is happening in terms of getting tight supplies of cattle out there, fewer calves coming along.”
He tells Brownfield it’s important to take a closer look at regional placements. “Nebraska really drove a big chunk of the decline in placements that we saw during August,” he says. “Nebraska placements were down 14%, or about 65,000 head. This accounted for about 40% of that decline, the national decline. Kansas was down 7%.”
Colorado dropped 18 percent, and Texas was down 6 percent. However, Oklahoma was the only state to place more cattle than a year ago, up 8 percent. “I think a lot of that is just driven by the drought conditions that are going on in Oklahoma right now,” he says. “Pushing some more cattle into feedlots earlier than you might expect.”
And while placements have declined, Cattle on Feed were actually up. “Because we’re feeding cattle longer,” he says. “Cattle are staying in feed lots longer, and so we end up with a higher than what might be expected on feed number.”
The USDA had marketings at 1.52 million head, down 3 percent, but higher than pre-report estimates. August marketings were also the lowest for any August going back to 1996.
