USDAS’s March Cattle on Feed report showed 11.6 million head of cattle in the nation’s feedlots as of April 1. That is down two percent from a year ago. Placements were up five percent from last year at 1.84 million head, and marketings were up one percent year over year. AgMarket.net partner Tyler Schau does not expect the market to pay much attention to these USDA numbers. The focus is on cash cattle. “We pay a lot of attention to the feeder calf index because we deal with a lot of cow-calf operators,” said Schau. “The daily number on Wednesday’s sales was over $300 on an average 800-pound steer. There were some massive sales at Aberdeen and very, very high prices in video auctions.”
