February Cattle on Feed – 03/25/2022

Feeder cattle placements and finished cattle sales both increased on a year over year basis last month. Cattle on feed March 1 totaled 12.1 million head which exceeded the previous year by just one percent.

We forecast cattle marketings over the March/September 2022  period will exceed finished cattle sales in the same months  of 2021 by less than one percent. The price scatter (fourth chart) displays the USDA ‘s March forecast ($139 published in March 2022) for the April/June average basis finished steers at Omaha. Nearby live cattle futures are trading very close to the USDA March forecast.