Improvement signalled in US hide supplies
The number of hides being generated in the United States could be on the increase over the next few months.
According to the US website focusing on the North American hide and skin sector, hidenet.com, the feedlots are ‘bulging with cattle’ that will soon be market ready. The subscription-only news service predicts slaughter rates rising to around 675,000 head per week by the first or second week of May, compared with current levels of 633,000. It also anticipates that the same high level will be sustained into the Autumn.
This is borne out by USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) statistics which show that April cattle inventories are up 3% year-on-year and 11% up on two years ago.
Though US beef production was down 6% in the first quarter of the year (the current figure is 10,878 million head slaughtered, as opposed to 11,572 million head at this time last year) the US Hides, Skins and Leather Association does not consider this to be the main reason behind the current hide supply situation. According to the Association’s president, Len Condon, the shortages are mainly being driven by the cyclic nature of the livestock market, and ranchers holding on to their cattle for longer in order to realise higher prices.
