May 25

5/25 - In Friday’s Cattle on Feed report, the USDA said the May 1st feedlot inventory fell to 11.2M head, 5.1% below last year. New placements onto feedlots in April were down 22.3% from a year ago. That follows a 22.7% drop in March. April cattle marketings to processing plants were down 24.3%, reflecting plant slowdowns and temporary closures. Federally inspected (FI) beef production in April declined 20.2% from a year ago. Year-over-year FI slaughter numbers turned negative (-17.2%) beginning the week of April 6 at 528,000 head. FI slaughter bottomed at 438,600 head the week of April 27 (-34.8%) and has since improved to 555,000 head last week (-14.2%). FI slaughter for May will come in roughly 18% below a year ago and May beef output will be 16%-to-20% below last year, far better than antidotal stories in the news of 35%-to-50% declines.