Cattle on feed inventory, red meat production

SIOUX FALLS — South Dakota’s 1,000+ capacity feedlots reported 230,000 cattle on feed for the slaughter market on January 1, according to the South Dakota office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. This is down 30,000 head from a year earlier but unchanged from a month earlier.

Placements during December totaled 34,000 head, down 3,000 head from last year and down 23,000 head from November 2012.

Marketings of fed cattle during December totaled 33,000 head, down 4,000 head from last year and down 12,000 head from November 2012.

Other disappearance during December totaled 1,000 head, down 4,000 head from last year and down 1,000 head from November 2012.

Neb. had 2.48M cattle on feed

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Federal authorities say the number of cattle in Nebraska feedlots with capacities of 1,000 or more contained 2.48 million head on Jan. 1.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the new figure is 3 percent under the total from a year ago.

Marketings totaled 425,000 head, which was 12 percent higher than last year. Placements totaled 390,000 head, which was up 3 percent from Jan. 1, 2011.

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service says the state’s Dec. 1 total of cattle on feedlots was 2.53 million head, which was slightly lower than the year-ago figure.

Nationwide, the Jan. 1 number of cattle and calves on feed was 11.2 million head, which was 6 percent under the total from a year ago.

Red meat production

SIOUX FALLS — Commercial red meat production for South Dakota totaled 99.3 million pounds during December 2012. This was down 3 percent from November but up 3 percent from one year ago. For December, both pork production and sheep and lamb production were up from one year ago, according to the South Dakota office of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Commercial hog slaughter for South Dakota totaled 435,300 head during December, compared to 427,600 head the year before. Average live weight was 270 pounds, which was down 2 pounds from December 2011.

Commercial sheep and lamb slaughter for South Dakota totaled 300 head during December, up 100 head from a year earlier. Average live weight was 115 pounds, unchanged from December 2011.