Missing: 1 million cattle

Weekly cattle slaughter returned to normal by late June, but somewhere there are nearly 1 million cattle that should have worked through the system this spring and did not. Their effect on the market should be at the front of every cattle producer’s marketing concerns. Where in the world are those million head, and when will they come to market? Statistics from USDA cattle daily and weekly slaughter reports and cattle-on-feed reports show us that measured against this time last year, with about the same number of cattle in the national herd, we dropped roughly 1 million cattle out of the fed-cattle marketing chain during the COVID-19 crisis this spring. Two important questions appear: First, how many of these are fed cattle? Second, how many are feeder cattle and of what weights?...MORE