January 1 Cattle Inventory Report

While the January first USDA Cattle Inventory Report shows an overall 2 percent increase to all cattle and calves numbers in the U.S. — our region's herds ended up with mixed results. USDA Livestock Analyst Shayle Shagam says overall

Shagam: "Bearing something really unseen, we will be seeing the herd expanding moving forward.

In Idaho, the cattle inventory was down 2 percent from the year previous. Dividing that number up between beef and dairy cows. The number of beef cows that calved are 1 percent lower than a year ago and the milk cows that have calved are 2 percent higher with approximately 100,000 more dairy cows than beef. Beef heifer replacements decreased by 20,000 head.

In Washington, the cattle inventory overall remained unchanged. Number of beef cows that calved were up by 1 percent and dairy cows that had calved were down 1 percent. Beef replacement heifers decreased by 2,000 head.

In Oregon overall cattle inventory numbers were up by 1 percent from a year ago. Beef cows that calved increased by 4 percent while dairy cow numbers decreased by 2 percent. Beef replacement heifers decreased by 5,000 head

Colorado had the largest increase of total inventory of cattle and calves in our listening area with a 6 percent increase. Beef cow counts were up 33,000 head from the previous year. Milk cows numbers increased by 7,000 head. Beef replacement heifer numbers remained unchanged.