Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 9.9 million head on Sept. 1, 2013, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) cattle on feed report said last week.

The inventory was 7 percent below Sept. 1, 2012. There were 550,000 head of cattle on feed for slaughter market in Iowa in feedlots with a capacity of 1,000 or more head, according to the report. This was down 40,000 head from September 2012.

Placements in U.S. feedlots during August totaled 1.79 million, 11 percent below 2012, and the lowest since the series began in 1996, the report said. There were...