Cattle and calves on feed for the slaughter market in the United States for feedlots with capacity of 1,000 or more head totaled 10.3 million head on Oct. 1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in its report. The inventory was up from 10.1 million head on Sept. 1.

There were 570,000 head of cattle on feed in Iowa feedlots with a capacity of 1,000 head or more as of Oct. 1, the USDA said. This was down 5 percent from last year and down 2 percent from Sept. 1.

Placements in U.S. feedlots during September totaled 1.91 million head, 2 percent below 2015. Placements were the lowest for September since the report series began in 1996.

Analysts polled by Reuters ex­­pected the USDA to show...