The US National Statistics Service reported 11.612 million HEAD of cattle in more than 1,000 feedlots as of April 1. This is 4.39% less than on April 22, compared with an expected fall of 5%. The ratio of heifers was 38.7%. This compares to a ratio of 37.7% in April 2022. The March placement amounted to 1.992 million heads, which is 0.65% less than last year, and much less than expected - by 5.2%. Sales were recorded at 1.977 million heads, down 1.15% year on year.
Experts say the drought played a role in the rise in livestock prices, but some point out that this is somewhat illogical: the drought was in the southern plains of the United States, and there are no pastures for animals. Cattle were herded to feedlots. One would think that this would actually increase the number of fattening cattle, but as we see month after month in the USDA Cattle on Feed Reports, this is simply not the case.
WEEKLY CUT CHOICE COST
CATTLE SALES
Sale of livestock, heads
Average weight
Week 15
Week 16
Growth per week,%
Week 15
Week 16
Growth per week,%
Bulls (live weight)
28 129
24 883
-11.5%
1448
1443
-0.3%
Heifers (live weight)
15 322
10 988
-28.3%
1315
1 321
0.5%
Bulls (slaughter. weight)
15 418
9 801
-36.4%
922
922
0.0%
Heifers (slaughter weight)
4679
3 300
-29.5%
803
795
-1.0%
WEEKLY WEIGHTED AVERAGE PRICE OF BULLS
BEEF PRODUCTION
Index
Week 16
Week 15
16 week 2022
Growth per week,%
Growth per year, %
Slaughter volume
622 000
613 000
664 000
1.5%
-6.3%
Live weight
1 365
1 367
1 376
-0.1%
-0.8%
slaughter weight
821
822
831
-0.1%
-1.2%
Beef production (million pounds)
509.7
502.8
550.6
1.4%
-7.4%
CME: Live Cattle Futures
Week 15
Week 16
Growth per week,%
April
174.75
173.98
-0.4%
June
163.73
164.53
0.5%
August
162.70
163.55
0.5%
Futures for fattening cattle
April
203.40
203.78
0.2%
May
207.90
212.40
2.2%
September
223.95
229.88
2.6%
You can learn more about the state of the cattle market in the United States (cattle prices, beef prices by category, production dynamics) in the weekly reviews of the MEAT market in RUSSIA and in the world from Meatinfo.ru. Weekly reviews are available free of charge as part of a monthly meat analytics subscription. Russian markets.