Market Reports

Cattle on feed inventories continue to remain above year-earlier levels, and placements continue to reflect the increasing cattle inventory. The number of cattle on feed in feedlots with a capacity of 1,000 head or greater on Nov. 1, 2017, was 6 percent above Nov. 1, 2016, and 5 percent above Nov. 1, 2015.

Continued growth in beef production in 2018 is likely to pressure cattle and beef prices. Cattle producers have a number of economic conditions to watch that will indicate the impact of factors they cannot control and that will have implications for those factors they do control.

The latest Cattle on Feed report pegged the Dec. 1 feedlot inventory at 11.512 million head, 108 percent of last year. This is an additional 864,000 head in feedlots compared with December 2016.

The 2017 U.S. commercial beef production forecast was reduced almost 150 million pounds from the previous month to 26.4 billion pounds on fewer fourth-quarter steer and heifer marketings and lighter carcass weights.

U.S. domestic beef consumption is projected to be 56.6 pounds per capita for 2017, up from 55.4 pounds in 2016 (retail weight). That is a 2.2 percent year-over-year increase. Beef consumption is higher because beef production is increasing; in fact, it is projected to be up 3.8 percent year over year from 2016.

How will the expansion of the global beef market, especially with new consumer bases opening up in China and around the world, affect the U.S. cattle producer?