February 4, 2014
Drought pushes down US cattle inventory to 60-year low
Due to persistent drought conditions, the US has recorded the smallest cattle herd in more than 60 years, while beef prices at grocery stores have reached record high.
The US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) said that cattle and calves totalled 87.7 million head as of January 1, 2014, down 2% on-year compared to 89.3 million in January 2013. The figure marked the lowest January 1 inventory of US cattle and calves since 1951, when 82.1 million head was recorded.
NASS also reported that the inventory of cows and heifers that have calved dropped by 1% to 38.3 million head from 38.5 million a year ago, the lowest January 1 inventory of all cows and heifers since 1941, which stood at 36.8 million head.
Beef cattle were down 1% to 29.0 million head, while milk cattle stayed at 9.2 million, unchanged from a year ago. The calf crop was at an estimated 33.9 million head in 2013, slipping by 1%. NASS noted that this is the smallest calf crop since 1949, during which year 33.7 million calves were born.
However, NASS data revealed that cattle producers retained more replacement heifers, signalling that producers are rebuilding their herds. Meanwhile, beef replacement heifers were up 2% to 5.5 million head.