The most recent USDA “Cattle on Feed” report was launched on Friday Feb. 24, and it was largely in step with expectations. The full variety of cattle on feed was down 4.1 p.c from the prior yr. Marketings had been up 4.2 p.c over the identical variety of slaughter days in January this yr as final yr. Placements had been 3.6 p.c smaller than the yr earlier than and had been the smallest January placements since 2016.
Every year the February cattle on feed report consists of information on the variety of feedlots, stock and marketings by measurement of feedlot. The report indicated there have been 26,093 feedlots within the U.S. in 2022. That was 1,027 fewer than reported in 2021. The smallest class reported, lower than 1,000 head, declined by 1,000 to 24,000 feedlots. Every feedlot measurement class with fewer than 7,999 head declined in quantity between 2021 and 2022. Every measurement class over 8,000 head both had the identical quantity or grew in quantity over the yr. Two extra feedlots with over 50,000 head had been reported in 2022. Feedlots in that largest class marketed about 35.2 p.c of fed cattle marketings, up from 34.6 p.c in 2021. The info would point out a barely extra concentrated feeding sector.
Chilly Storage Shares Stay Giant
One other fascinating report launched Feb. 24 was the “Chilly Storage” report. The report indicated 533 million kilos of beef in storage, about 1 p.c greater than January of 2022, however lower than in December. The quantity of beef in storage is traditionally giant.
Beef in chilly storage has been fairly fascinating for a lot of months. Chilly storage shares of beef are inclined to peak in December-January and attain a low in June-July. The seasonal decline in shares has been, on common, about 82 million kilos over the past 5 years. In 2022, there was little or no seasonal decline and provides grew to 544 million kilos by the tip of the yr.
Why are shares so giant? One issue is that beef manufacturing was a file giant 28.3 billion kilos in 2022. U.S. whole beef commerce, exports plus imports, was additionally a file giant 6.78 billion kilos in 2022. Beef exports had been a file giant 3.43 billion kilos and imports, 3.35 billion kilos, probably the most since 2015. That’s lots of beef shifting in, out, and across the nation. Placing this stage of shares in context is that 533 million kilos is about 1.6 kilos per particular person, which isn’t loads completely different than per capita shares over the past a number of many years. Per capita chilly storage shares had been over 2 kilos again within the early to mid-Nineteen Seventies when the ushit peak cattle numbers and beef demand started to say no.
