In its monthly cattle on feed report last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said the U.S. cattle inventory was up 4 percent from one year ago.

Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 11.6 million head on June 1, 2018, the USDA said.  The inventory was 4 percent above June 1, 2017, and the highest June 1 inventory since the series began in 1996, the USDA noted.

There were 720,000...