By Kirk Maltais
The amount of cattle placed on feed in September fell from the same timeframe last year, running counter to estimates of analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
In its report Friday, the USDA says that 2.16 million head of cattle were placed on feedlots through Oct. 1--which is down from 2.22 million head through September of last year. Overall, the number of cattle on feed totaled 11.55 million head, down from 11.72 million head last year.
Analysts surveyed this month say that they expected the number of cattle placed on feed to be 1.4% higher than last year, with total cattle on feed being 99.3% of last year's total.
At the close of trading Friday, most-active live cattle futures trading on the CME finished down 1% at $1.28325 per pound, while lean hog futures closed up 0.2% at 73.325 cents per pound.
Write to Kirk Maltais at kirk.maltais@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-22-21 1535ET
