Cattle Herd Still Shrinking But There was a Bright Spot in Friday's USDA Report

Last Friday’s USDA Cattle on Feed Report and Cattle Inventory Reports showed again ever tighter cattle supplies, but also had a bright spot of possible expansion on the horizon. The good news in the lower numbers of heifers and heifer calves in feedlot, which was down 5 percent. USDA Livestock Analyst Shayle Shagam says
Shagam: “As a proportion of total number of animals on feed on July first, the number of heifers on feed was 35.6 percent of total animals on feed compared to 36.4 percent last year. So producers are holding back heifers.”
He shares additional numbers from Friday’s reports.
Shagam: “The number of cattle and calves was 95 million head — the lowest number since the series began in 1973. Now it is not possible to make comparisons to 3013 numbers due to the sequester last year there was no 2013 Cattle Inventory report. However if we make a comparison to July 1, 2012, we were down about 3 percent from two years ago. Heifers being kept for beef cow replacement on July 1, was 4.1 million head which was down 2 percent from 2012. The calf crop was 33.6 million head which was down about 2 percent from 2012 and would be the lowest calf crop since 1948.”