Last spring, the U.S. Department of the Interior published a proposal with the potential to shift priorities on 245 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. A public comment period yielded thousands of substantive comments for the BLM to consider.

There was a 10% increase in February feedlot placements from 2023 to 1.89 million head, representing the most February placements since at least 1996.

The Cattle on Feed report released by the USDA-NASS on Feb. 23 showed that animals in feedlots bound for the slaughter market in the U.S. totaled 11.8 million head on Feb. 1, a slightly higher inventory than the same period in 2023.

Few times in history has the cattle industry offered more opportunity for profit to conscientious producers than right now. That was the primary message of CattleFax CEO Randy Blach’s executive summary at CattleFax’s Industry Outlook Seminar on Feb. 2. 

The census showed about a 6% drop in the total number of cattle and calves from 2017 to 2022, to just under 88 million head. However, the total number of cattle sold increased from about $77.2 billion in 2017 to some $89.4 billion in 2022, a jump of almost 16%.

“Where’s my El Nino?”
That’s the question many farmers and ranchers have been asking over the past year, and the answer is one many might not want to hear: El Nino is here, but it’s already on its way out the door.