By Kirk Maltais


Inventories of cattle on feedlots in the U.S. through January rose versus this time last year, running on par with analyst forecasts.

In its monthly Cattle-on-Feed Report released Friday, the Agriculture Department said total cattle-on-feed inventories were 11.8 million head. That is an uptick of 0.4% for the month, versus the estimates of analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal of a 0.1% uptick in inventories.

Placements totaled 1.79 million head for the month up to Feb. 1, which is down 7.4% from last month. Analysts forecast placements to drop by 12.7%.

Cattle marketed stayed stable, falling to 1.84 million head, a 0.1% decline. Analysts had forecast marketings to fall 0.2%.

Livestock futures closed Friday mixed, reversing the move for livestock seen in morning trade. Most-active trading live cattle futures finished up 0.7% to $1.877 a pound, while live cattle futures closed up 0.7% to $1.877 a pound.


To see related data, search "USDA Monthly Cattle on Feed Data" in Dow Jones NewsPlus.


Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-23-24 1540ET