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Producers and state cattle organizations continued work within a key committee of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association to address major points on market transparency and price discovery.
Cattle inventory liquidation over the past three years – to the sum of almost 3 million head – has created a tighter supply of beef cattle going into 2022, and price dynamics will keep paying off for the industry.
In November, slaughter was higher year-over-year. While the increase in total cattle slaughter can be attributed to the additional slaughter day in November 2021 relative to a year prior, the average pace of fed cattle slaughter was higher on a per-weekday basis, with Saturday slaughter averaging lower.
During December 2020, the price for 500- to 600-pound steers in South Dakota briefly averaged above $190 per hundredweight (cwt) for a couple of weeks, a level last observed in early 2016.
Based on the latest USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) federally inspected Livestock Slaughter report, the inferred (federally inspected production/federally inspected head slaughtered) carcass weight for September is 827.1 pounds, while the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) weekly actual and estimated federally inspected Livestock Slaughter reports showed that the inferred weight for October was 831.8 pounds, about 4.7 pounds heavier month-over-month.
Total commercial beef production in 2021 was raised to 27.832 billion pounds from last month on anticipated heavier carcass weights and higher cow slaughter.
October brought significant rain across most of Oklahoma after a very dry September. The rains came in the form of a significant fall severe weather season.
Slaughter remains higher year-over-year. Preliminary estimated federally inspected cattle slaughter for August was up 3.1% from a year ago. Notably, the weekly estimated FI cow slaughter through Aug. 28 was up 13% year-over-year.
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the midyear Cattle report on July 23, which provided a snapshot of the U.S. cattle inventory, as well as a glimpse into cow-calf producers’ intentions for retaining heifers.
