In Friday’s USDA report, cattle placements were up a surprising ten percent. USDA livestock economist Mike McConnell said there is some logic to these numbers. “In January, we actually had a relatively low placement number,” said McConnell. “That was due to the winter storms that we had across the Midwest that came in early January which delayed some of those placements. Some of the increase that we saw in placements during February was the fact that we were making up for some of the weather incidents that occurred in early January.” The total cattle inventory was up one percent from a year ago. Marketings rose three percent. In this region, the cattle inventory on March 1 was 11 percent higher in Minnesota and up 14 percent in South Dakota. Placements were unchanged in Minnesota, but up 14 percent in South Dakota.
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