February Cattle on Feed and Feedlot Sizes

By Josh Maples

The February Cattle on Feed report was released this past Friday afternoon and reported 11.7 million head of cattle in feedlots on February 1^st. This was a 0.7 percent decrease from February 1, 2024. Marketings were up 1.4 percent year-over-year. There were no big surprises in the report relative to pre-report expectations, but there were some interesting points in the report.

Placements of cattle into feedlots during January were up 1.7 percent above January 2024. Weather and winter storms delayed January 2024 placements, so the increase shown for 2025 is partially driven by a lower 2024 number. In 2024, placements were higher in February than they were in January which was the first time that had occurred since 1996. We have not seen those same challenges so far in 2025, but February placements are likely to be impacted by the lingering impacts of the Mexico cattle import ban.

A regional look at the data implies an impact of the Mexico import ban on January placements. January 2025 placements of cattle into feedlots in Texas were 50,000 head lower than a year ago which is a 14.5 percent decrease. This was offset by a 60,000 head (15.4 percent) increase in Kansas and a 30,000 head (5.9 percent) increase in Nebraska during January.

The largest increase in placements was in the 700-799 pound weight range which were up 30,000 head (6.3 percent) from a year ago. Placements were up across all weight classes in Nebraska and Kansas and lower across all weight classes in Texas. Placements of cattle into Texas feedlots weighing less than 699 pounds were down 35,000 head during January compared to a year ago.

The data mentioned above comes from feedlots with at least 1,000 head capacity. However, another interesting part of the February report is detail about distribution of cattle across feedlot sizes. There are 2,105 feedlots with at least 1,000 head feeding capacity. These feedlots housed 83 percent of cattle on feed as of January 1, 2025. The remaining 17 percent of cattle on feed were located across the 24,000 feedlots with a capacity of less than 1,000 head. Of the 1,000+ capacity feedlots, there were 80 that have a capacity of 50,000 head or more and these were home to 35 percent of the total U.S. cattle on feed on January 1.