the agriculture department said friday that us cattle inventories on feed through july 1 fell less than what was expected by analysts total supplies of cattle on feedlots were 112 million head 18 lower from a year ago the usda said in its monthly cattle on feed report analysts surveyed by the wall street journal prior to the report expected the inventories to be down by 24 versus this time last year meanwhile placements of cattle on feed rose totaling 168 million head logged through july 1 a decline of 27 analysts had expected these placements to fall 22 from the previous month the usda reported fed cattle marketed for the month ended july 1 totaled 196 million head which is down 51 from last years total that exceeds analyst forecasts which had predicted marketings to fall 47 from the previous month the mostactive cattle contract trading on the cme closed fridays trading session down 05 to 181775 a pound lean hog futures finished down 06 at 8425 cents a pound to see related data search usda monthly cattle on feed data in dow jones newsplus