Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Herd rebuilding will have to wait

The monthly slaughter data released Oct. 21, confirmed what a flurry of weekly reports and anecdotal reports had been saying for sometime. The pace of cow and heifer slaughter accelerated in September and herd rebuilding will likely have to wait a bit longer.

USDA reported that US beef producers sent 1.414 million head of female cattle (heifers and cows) to slaughter in September, about 1% more than the comparable period a year ago and 8.5% more than the five year average for the month. The increase in female cattle slaughter was due to a sharp increase in the number of cows coming to market. Heifer slaughter for the month was down 6% from a year ago while total cow slaughter rose 12%. Year to date cow slaughter is up 200,000 head or 4.2% compared to the same period a year ago while heifer slaughter for the year is down 1.3%.
As seen on marketwatchonline.com

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