Due to the recent partial government shutdown, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) was not able to release the annual Cattle Inventory Report at the end of January. But now one month later, NASS has released the figures which shows the number of all cattle and calves in the United States, as of January 1, 2019, totaled 94.8 million head, up slightly from the 94.3 million head on January 1, 2018.
All cows and heifers that have calved were at 41.1 million head, 1 percent above the 40.9 million head on January 1 last year. Beef cows, at 31.8 million head, were up 1 percent from a year ago. Milk cows, at 9.35 million head, were down 1 percent from the previous year.
Here in the Southeast, the number of cattle and calves in Alabama was 1.30 million head on January 1, down 3 percent from January 1, 2018. The Florida inventory was up 3 percent from last year, at 1.68 million head, while the Georgia cattle inventory totaled 1.07 million, up 1 percent from the previous year.