Cattle on Feed Report

The USDA released a newsletter last Friday named Cattle on Feed 8/21/26. While it displays increased cattle inventory in feedlots compared to last year, there are still lower placements.

USDA livestock analyst Anthony Fischer covers the numbers in the August report and states, “On August 1st, the number of Cattle on Feed in US Feedlots of 1,000 head or greater was just over 11.1 million head which was nearly 200,000 head above August 2025.” Fischer explains that the number of placements into feedlots were significantly lower than expectations. “During July, feedlots marketed over 1.6 million head, despite marketings coming in right around expectations, placements were lower than expected and they were actually the lowest number for the month of July in the data series going back to 1996.”

Again, those were quotes from USDA livestock analyst Anthony Fischer.