Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 4/26/10

Cattle placements in feedlots during March totaled 1.86 million, up 3 percent from the same period a year ago, according to USDA's monthly Cattle on Feed report issued Friday.

The figure was far lower than expected, notes Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist Derrell Peel: "There was a wide variation in regional placement patterns and the resulting average was not only lower than expected but lower than the lowest pre-report estimate," he wrote in his analysis.

A Dow Jones survey of analysts pre-report indicated that, on average, they expected placement to be up 6.6 percent over the same period last year.

Furthermore, although the figure is higher year-over-year, there was an additional business day in 2010, and so cattle placements in March, in fact, were flat — not the large increase in placements that the industry expected after four months of lower placements, year-over-year, Peel said.

Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.8 million head on April 1, 2010. The inventory was 4 percent below that date a year ago. Marketings of fed cattle during March totaled 1.90 million, 4 percent above 2009.

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