February 10, 2023

 

US beef cattle inventory lowest in more than 60 years

 

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said beef cattle inventories across the country are at their lowest point since 1962, the Arkadelphian reported.

 

The USDA reported 89.3 million head of cattle as of January 1, 2023 in its biannual cattle report, which is 3% lower than the total reported a year ago and the lowest since 2015. Beef cattle, those bred specifically for slaughter and meat sales, fell 3.6% to 28.9 million head, the agency's lowest total since 1962.

 

Kenny Burdine from the University of Kentucky, and James Mitchell, extension livestock economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that the decline was not surprising.

 

They said it was just a question of how much smaller the beef cow herd had shrunk.

 

Many producers across the country faced economic and weather-related challenges in 2022, with input costs such as diesel and fertiliser doubling or tripling, and a hot, dry summer that only increased reliance on groundwater in the absence of rainfall.

 

Drought conditions, in particular, provided no replenishment of dwindling forage supplies, forcing many cattle producers to slaughter more of their herds than they would have wanted. The USDA said increased beef cull prices contributed to an 11% increase in beef cow slaughter.

 

Mitchell said the reduced supply, combined with consistent demand from US consumers, meant greater profitability for those producers with stock to sell.

 

He said the historically low cattle stocks today will result in tighter cattle output, leading to potentially higher prices, adding that the recent USDA report reinforces a bullish outlook on cattle prices for the next couple of years.

 

The downward trend in cattle production does not appear to be changing in 2023. Burdine and Mitchell said USDA cattle-on-feed data showed the number of cows on feed as of January 1, fell 4% from 2022 levels to around 14.2 million, marking the first year-on-year decline in beef production in eight years.

 

-      Arkadelphian