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Placements remain the number to watch

The industry continues to watch the number of cattle placed into feedyards. Mississippi State University Extension ag economist Josh Maples says there are some seasonal patterns in placements. “As we get into May, we typically see a pop here,” he says.

Placements for April were down, Maples says that’s similar to 2024. “Then as we went into May, we jumped up nearly 300,000 head from where we were in April last year,” he says.  “I’m expecting a rebound. I think we’re kind of seeing that bounce back and forth a little bit.  Now the question is how much.”

He tells Brownfield there are a lot of questions heading into Friday’s report.  “Are we actually going to bump back on those five-year average numbers that we’ve seen,” he says.  “I just don’t see how we do that.”

Maples says the ongoing ban of live cattle imports from Mexico will continue to play a factor in placements.

The average of pre-report estimates has all cattle on-feed down a little more than 1 percent (with a range of 98.1 to 99.4) and cattle placed down nearly 6 percent (with a range of 88 to 97.7). Markets are projected to be down nearly 10 percent (with a range of 89.3 to 95).