The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) has released its annual Cattle Inventory, and the numbers show all cattle and calves in the United States as of Jan. 1, 2020 totaled 94.4 million head. This is down slightly from the 94.8 million head on Jan. 1, 2019. All cows and heifers that have calved, at 40.7 million head, were 1% below the 41.0 million head on Jan. 1, 2019. Beef cows, at 31.3 million head, were down 1% from a year ago. Milk cows, at 9.33 million head, were down slightly from the previous year.
In Alabama, all cattle and calves totaled 1.31 million head, a slight increase from Jan. 1, 2019. Florida inventory remained unchanged at 1.68 million head, while all cattle and calves in Georgia totaled 1.10 million, up 3% from the previous year.
And in a story from Gary Crawford, we now have confirmation of a new direction for the U.S. cattle herd.
Shayle Shagam, USDA livestock analyst, runs through some of the key numbers from Friday’s USDA cattle report.