A livestock economist says there were a couple of factors that contributed to February placements into feedyards that were nearly 10% above year-ago levels. University of Missouri’s Scott Brown tells Brownfield in addition to the extra day because of the Leap Year. “ January was bitterly cold and we had a lot of those auction markets closed down for a period of time,” he says. “We probably pulled some calves from January into February because all that cold weather.”
He says the industry is a long way from how tight placements could get in the coming months.
