The USDA released its monthly Cattle on Feed report on June 23, indicating a 3% decrease from year-ago levels. On feedlots with more than 1,000 head of capacity, 11.6 million cattle are on feed for slaughter in the U.S. Feedlot placements for the month of May totaled 1.96 million head, up 5% from 2022, with net placements at 1.88 million head.

In this episode, Clay Burtrum, a commercial cow-calf producer in Oklahoma, shares his experience with a two-year virtual fencing project with Oklahoma State University.

Since October 2022, drought conditions have improved for much of the country, to the point where less than 24% of the U.S. is under drought conditions.

The forecast for first-quarter beef production is lowered 25 million pounds, based on USDA Agricultural Marketing Service reports of federally inspected livestock slaughter, showing a slower pace of fed cattle slaughter and lower aggregate carcass weights than expected last month.

Efficiency can be defined as achieving the greatest output with the least input; a commonly used measure is pounds of gain per pounds of feed, abbreviated as G/F.

The latest USDA Cattle on Feed report pegged the Oct. 1 cattle on feed inventory at 11.45 million head, down 0.9% year over year. This is the first year-over-year decrease in the monthly on-feed inventory since December 2021.