NASS Cattle Report on Cow Numbers

The July Cattle Report is out and shows some positives for the cattle industry as NASS Livestock Branch Chief Dan Kerestes shares
Kerestes: “I think that the July Cattle Report confirms that the U.S. cattle herd inventory is growing. All cattle and calves in the United States as of July 1st, 2015 totaled 98.4 million head. That is a 2 percent increase over July 1st, 2014. The last time all cattle and calves increased was back in 2006.”
Beef cows were at 30.5 million head which is a 3 percent increase from the previous year. That is 750,000 head of beef cows that have been added in to U.S. cattle herds within the last year. Kerestes continues with this year’s crop of new calves which has increased.
Kerestes: “The 2015 calf crop - we are expecting that to be at 34.3 million which is 1 percent higher than 2014. Usually we split up the calving into first half and second half of the year. For the first half of the year we are estimating 24.8 million head and that is up 1 percent from the previous year. Overall we see an increase of 400,000 head for the calf crop over a year ago. This is the first increase in the calf crop since 1995.”