The United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service issued the Pacific Region Livestock Review. Following is excerpts from the report.
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 440,000 head on March 1, 2016. The inventory was 1 percent below from last month and unchanged from March 1, 2015. During February, placements in feedlots totaled 46,000 head, down 4 percent from the previous year. Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 46,000 head, up 7 percent from February 2015. Other disappearance totaled 5,000 head during February, unchanged from February 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 March 1, 2016. The inventory was up 1 from March 1, 2015. Placements in feedlots during February totaled 1.71 million head, 10 percent above from 2015. Net placements were 1.65 million head. During February, placements of cattle and calves weighing less than 600 pounds were 335,000 head, 600-699 pounds were 300,000 head, 700-799 pounds were 445,000 head, and 800 pounds and greater were 630,000 head. Marketings of fed cattle during February totaled 1.59 million head, 5 percent above from last year. Other disappearance totaled 58,000 head during February, 3 percent below from previous year.
Pacific Region Commercial Slaughter
California’s production of red meat during February 2016 totaled 114 million pounds (dressed weight), 9 percent above than February 2015. This figure includes slaughter in Federally-inspected and state-inspected plants, but excludes farm slaughter. In February 2016, the average live weight of cattle slaughtered in California was 1,351 pounds, calves averaged 91 pounds, sheep and lambs averaged 146 pounds, and hogs averaged 247 pounds. In Hawaii, 700,000 pounds of red meat were produced in February 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 3.90 billion pounds in February, 2016, 5 percent above the 3.73 billion pounds produced in February 2015.
Beef production, at 1.89 billion pounds, was 7 percent above the previous year. Cattle slaughter totaled 2.29 million head, up 5 percent from February 2015.
Veal production totaled 6.10 million pounds, 3 percent below February a year ago. Calf slaughter totaled 36,500 head, down 1 percent from February 2015.
Pork production totaled 2.00 billion pounds, up 3 percent from the previous year. Hog slaughter totaled 9.43 million head, up 4 percent from February 2015.
Lamb and mutton production, at 12.5 million pounds, was 8 percent above from February 2015. Sheep slaughter totaled 175,800 head, up 7 percent from last year.
California Milk Production
California milk producers had a total of 1.77 million milk cows for February that produced 3.30 billion pounds of milk. Milk production is down 4 percent from January, 2016 and up 1 percent from February 2015. Monthly milk per cow averaged 1,860 pounds, down 75 pounds from January 2016.
The Pacific Region Livestock Review (.pdf)