Sort & Cull

OMAHA (DTN) -- USDA's Nov. 1 Cattle on Feed report will be worth spending time analyzing. The report is scheduled to be released at 2 p.m. CST on Friday.

For starters, if the on-feed numbers total year-ago levels, then there will be roughly 11.9 million head on feed. But if the analysts that believe on-feed numbers could be closer to 101.3% of a year ago are correct, that could push total numbers above 12 million head. That has only happened 14 times since 2019 and is somewhat of a baffling market reality when you consider that the industry sits with record-low cow herd numbers. It's likely that this would be an upper-tier threshold for the industry and that we'll likely see on-feed totals begin to dwindle moving forward.

Secondly, it's going to be very important to note where placements sit, as that will affect showlists later next spring. I personally tend to believe that placements will be on the lower end of analysts' range of estimates simply because cattle were marketed aggressively earlier this year.

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

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