Economist says cattle supplies will continue to tighten

The USDA’s latest Cattle on Feed report is extremely bearish, with both On Feed totals and Cattle Placed well outside the top-end of pre-report expectations.

University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says that could lead to a very interesting last half of the year.  “Drought has certainly made us want to place cattle in feedyards earlier than normal,” he says.  “It makes me wonder, are we going to run out of cattle by the end of this year.  If we keep placing them at the rate that they are, I don’t think we can continue to do that.”  This report also included heifer on feed information, and Brown says there is no indication producers are holding back replacement heifers.

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