Cattle Outlook - Consumer Demand Down
US - The number of cattle placed on feed in July through November was down five per cent. However, all of the decline was in cattle weighing less than 700 pounds.
5 January 2009
2 minute read
Ron Plain
The number of cattle placed on feed in July-November weighing less than 600 pounds was down 29.6 per cent the number weighing 600-699 was down 10.2 per cent, the number weighing 700-799 pounds was up 1.9 per cent and the number weighing over 800 pounds was up 8.9 per cent. For November, the number placed on feed weighing less than 600 pounds was down 17.5 per cent, the number weighing 600-699 pounds was down 4.5 per cent the number placed weighing 700-799 pounds was up 7.1 per cent and number weighing over 800 pounds was up 2.8 per cent from last year.
There has been some speculation that the number of feeder cattle in the U.S. inventory has been overestimated because of the five per cent reduction in placement during the last five months. The weights that cattle have been when placed would suggest the number of feeder cattle in the inventory may not be any smaller than the estimate because all of the reductions in placements have been cattle weighing less than 700 pounds. The less than 700-pound cattle placed on feed have been down 20.5 per cent while the number placed on feed weighing over 700 pounds has been up 5.6 per cent.
Beef demand at the consumer level for January-November was down about 5 per cent from a year earlier. For these same 11 months live fed cattle demand was down from 2007 but only about one per cent. The stronger fed live cattle demand is due to the 35 per cent increase in beef exports.
There was no sale this week at Oklahoma City because of the holiday.
Wholesale beef prices this Friday morning at $143.40 for Choice beef was up $209 per cwt from two weeks earlier. Select beef at $136.07 per cwt was up $0.72 from two weeks earlier.
The weighted average live fed cattle prices for the five-market area for the week through Wednesday at $86.00 per cwt, was up $1.48 per cwt from a week earlier. The weighted average carcass price for the five-market area for the week through Wednesday at $135.05 was up $0.60 per cwt from seven days earlier.
Slaughter this week under Federal Inspection was estimated at $474 thousand head, down 2.3 per cent from a year earlier.
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