Cattle being fed for the slaughter market...

Cattle being fed for the slaughter market as of Feb. 1 in the seven major beef states totaled 7.86 million head, up 8% from a year ago and 3% from two years ago, the Agriculture Department said. The placement of new cattle and calves in fattening pens last month was reported at 1.66 million head, up 4% from a year ago and 5% more than in January, 1986. As of Feb. 1, feedlot inventories were larger than a year earlier in Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, California and Arizona, and down in Iowa. The states account for three-fourths of the nation’s beef production.