USDA Cattle on Feed Report Preview

OMAHA (DTN) -- Friday's USDA Jan. 1 Cattle on Feed report looks like it should come as a bullish charge to the complex.

The biggest line item to watch in Friday's COF report will be placements again. Throughout December, naturally, there are fewer calves and feeders placed, as receiving yards don't want the headache of new cattle around the holidays, and most sale barns shut down for the last two weeks of the year. But, in addition to these regular occurrences, we cannot forget about the snowstorm that blasted much of the country and forced some sale barns to cancel their regular sale and hindered trucks from transporting cattle.

Regarding the number of cattle on feed, seeing a decrease from a year ago should help alleviate some of the pressure that's looming over the live cattle complex. And the decrease in marketings likely comes from the fact that packers were having to monitor processing speeds throughout the month of December more carefully than in years past as the cash cattle market gained momentum.

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

	USDA Actual	Average Estimate	Range
On Feed Jan. 1		96.8%	96.5-97.4%
Placed in December		91.5%	89.4-94.4%
Marketed in December		94.7%	94.2-96.2%

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

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