Cattle on Feed Report     05/23  14:37

May 1 Cattle on Feed Down 2% From Year Ago, Placements Down 3%

By DTN Staff

                      USDA Actual   Average Estimate       Range
On Feed May 1             98%            98.3%        97.5-99.2%
Placed in April           97%           104.2%       99.0-106.7%
Marketed in April         97%           100.6%       99.0-101.5%

This article was originally published at 2:07 p.m. CDT on 
Friday, May 23. It was last updated with additional information 
at 2:37 p.m. CDT on Friday, May 23.

**

OMAHA (DTN) -- Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter 
market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 
or more head totaled 11.4 million head on May 1, 2025. The 
inventory was 2% below May 1, 2024, USDA NASS reported on 
Friday.

Placements in feedlots during April totaled 1.61 million head, 
3% below 2024. Net placements were 1.56 million head. During 
April, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 
pounds were 310,000 head, 600-699 pounds were 225,000 head, 700-
799 pounds were 370,000 head, 800-899 pounds were 443,000 head, 
900-999 pounds were 195,000 head, and 1,000 pounds and greater 
were 70,000 head.

Marketings of fed cattle during April totaled 1.83 million head, 
3% below 2024.

Other disappearance totaled 50,000 head during April, 11% below 
2024.

DTN ANALYSIS

"Pre-report estimates nearly pinned Friday's USDA Cattle on Feed 
report perfectly, and it's likely that on Tuesday when the 
market opens following the long Memorial Day weekend, traders 
will find the report to be bullish," said DTN Livestock Analyst 
ShayLe Stewart.

"The biggest takeaway from Friday's report, however, is the 
placement data," Stewart said. "With placements in April 2025 
only totaling 1.613 million head, that's the lightest monthly 
placement data the industry has seen since April 2020 when 
placements were vastly disturbed by the COVID outbreak. And when 
looking back further in the data, beyond the market's disruption 
in 2020, the last time a single month has seen placements below 
1.6 million head was back in January 2015.

"There were only two states that saw greater placements than 
compared to a year ago: Kansas (up 3%) and Oklahoma (up 2%). 
Otherwise, every single major feeding state saw a year-over-year 
decline. And in terms of cattle placed by weights, every weight 
group saw a year-over-year decline.

"Needless to say, the data is clear: There were starkly fewer 
cattle placed this past month because of the limited number of 
feeder cattle and because of reduced imports from Mexico."

**

DTN subscribers can view the full Cattle on Feed reports in the 
Livestock Archives folder under the Markets menu. The report is 
also available at https://www.nass.usda.gov/.