California Cattle on Feed
Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in California for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 415,000 head on May 1, 2016. The inventory was 1 percent below from last month and down 8 percent from May 1, 2015. During April, placements in feedlots totaled 50,000 head, up 2 percent from the previous year. Marketings of fed cattle during April totaled 52,000 head, up 30 percent from April 2015. Other disappearance totaled 3,000 head during April, 25 percent below April 2015.
United States Cattle on Feed
Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.8 million head on May 1, 2016. The inventory was up 1 percent from May 1, 2015. Placements in feedlots during April totaled 1.66 million head, 7 percent above from 2015. Net placements were 1.59 million head. During April, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds were 334,000 head, 600-699 pounds were 225,000 head, 700-799 pounds were 390,000 head, and 800 pounds and greater were 715,000 head. Marketings of fed cattle during April totaled 1.66 million head, 1 percent above from last year. Other disappearance totaled 76,000 head during April, 15 percent above from previous year.
Pacific Region Commercial Slaughter
California’s production of red meat during April 2016 totaled 102 million pounds (dressed weight), 5 percent below than April 2015. This figure includes slaughter in Federally-inspected and state-inspected plants, but excludes farm slaughter. In April 2016, the average live weight of cattle slaughtered in California was 1,343 pounds, calves averaged 95 pounds, sheep and lambs averaged 144 pounds, and hogs averaged 244 pounds. In Hawaii, 700,000 pounds of red meat were produced in April 2016, and 100,000 pounds of red meat were produced in Nevada.
United States Commercial Slaughter
Commercial red meat production for the United States totaled 3.98 billion pounds in April, 2016, 1 percent below the 4.02 billion pounds produced in April 2015.
Beef production, at 1.96 billion pounds, was 2 percent above the previous year. Cattle slaughter totaled 2.41 million head, up 1 percent from April 2015.
Veal production totaled 6.00 million pounds, 10 percent below April a year ago. Calf slaughter totaled 34,800 head, down 2 percent from April 2015.
Pork production totaled 2.00 billion pounds, down 3 percent from the previous year. Hog slaughter totaled 9.37 million head, down 3 percent from April 2015.
Lamb and mutton production, at 12.8 million pounds, was 6 percent below from April 2015. Sheep slaughter totaled 189,000 head, down 5 percent from last year.
California Milk Production
California milk producers had a total of 1.77 million milk cows for April that produced 3.48 billion pounds of milk. Milk production is down 3 percent from March, 2016 and down 3 percent from April 2015. Monthly milk per cow averaged 1,965 pounds, down 70 pounds from March 2016.