Where the Cattle Inventory is Headed Wednesday May 5th, 2021 Since the beginning of March, any year-over-year comparison of cattle slaughter and feedlot inventory flow has been interesting given the distortions in the flow of cattle resulting from COVID and plant shutdowns and slowdowns last year. And, it’s likely to remain that way into the latter part of this year. According to John Nalivka, President and Owner of Sterling Marketing, Inc., while plants brought throughput utilization back closer to capacity by early June last year, the backlog had to be worked through. At the same time, feedlot inventories were disrupted during March and April with many cattle typically bound for the feedlot, but instead going to grass in response to a sharply lower market.