USDA Cattle on Feed Report Preview

OMAHA (DTN) -- Friday's Feb. 1 Cattle on Feed report is going to be one that the industry quickly searches for, as everyone wants to know just how low the placements were in January.

January endured two brutally cold weeks where snow and rain in some regions hindered livestock sales, transportation and placements. Some analysts believe that placements could be down as much as 19% from a year ago, which could indeed be a record for the lowest placements ever seen in January. As you can see from the range in the table below, some analysts believe placements could be down just a mere 6%. I don't believe that to be the case, as many sale barns were closed during that time, and it was a large portion of the U.S. that endured the winter effects -- not just a small region.

The real question that will be answered next week when traders finally get a chance to trade Friday's Cattle on Feed report will be whether the market has already accounted for sharply lighter placements in January or if that's a bullish factor that the market still needs to account for.

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USDA will release its Feb. 1 Cattle on Feed report at 2 p.m. CST on Friday.

	USDA Actual	Average Estimate	Range
On Feed Feb. 1		100.1%	99.4-101.1%
Placed in January		87.3%	81.6-94.0%
Marketed in January		99.8%	98.6-100.3%

ShayLe Stewart can be reached at ShayLe.Stewart@dtn.com

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