A COF Report Comes Out Among Other Headlines

Nov 26, 2025

By David Anderson

Amid the drumbeat of bad news in the cattle market over the last month, including on-again, off-again tariffs, jawboning for lower beef prices, and now Tyson’s announcement that they will close their beef packing plant in Lexington, NE, in January, USDA released a cattle on feed report. (We’ll look at the impact of the plant closure on packing capacity in a future SAT). USDA caught up on cattle on feed following the shutdown when they released the COF report on Friday, November 21^st.

The report did not contain many surprises. Placements and marketings were down 10 percent and 8 percent, compared to October 2024. The combination left the number of cattle on feed down 1.6 percent compared to November 1, 2024.

The most interesting, and important, number in the report was the number of heifers on feed. Heifers on feed is normally reported in the October report, but that was delayed due to the shutdown.

Click here to see more...

Video: Trailer Biosecurity at Harvest Plants - Dr. Lucas Ferreira

In this episode of The Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast, Dr. Lucas Ferreira, a Research Assistant at the University of Minnesota, discusses trailer contamination risks at packing plants. He shares research on pathogen prevalence, seasonal trends, driver biosecurity practices, and factors contributing to contamination during transport. He highlights opportunities to strengthen biosecurity and reduce disease transmission across swine operations. Listen now on all major platforms!

"Trailer washing gaps allow harvest plant contamination to increase pathogen risk before equipment returns to farms or wash facilities."

Meet the guest: Dr. Lucas Ferreira https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-fer... is a veterinarian from Brazil currently pursuing a master's degree at the University of Minnesota. His work focuses on swine pathogen epidemiology, detection, control, and prevalence, with an emphasis on science-driven solutions that improve herd health and biosecurity. Learn more from Dr. Lucas Ferreira on The Swine Health Blackbelt Podcast, available on all major platforms.