National Cattle Herd Contracts For the First Time In Six Years

Friday's new USDA cattle inventory report shows the number of cattle and calves on January first at 4.4 million head. That's down about 0.5% from a year ago.  And in fact we're seeing declines in beef and dairy cows, replacement heifers for both sectors, and in the 2019 calf crop.

“This is the first time since 2014 that we're seeing a contraction in the herd,” said USDA Livestock Analyst, Shayle Shagam.  He added the contraction is not really a surprise.

“The past couple of years the cow/calf operators have been facing relatively weak returns. And compounding that situation has been a relatively poor forge conditions in the past year, and some of them have simply, I think, decided to cut back on their production.”

But there is still time to change that decision for the heart of the breeding season.

“It's going to depend very much on the state of forge conditions and the state of recent returns as they go through the year,” Shagam added.

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