By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
Cattle herds across the nation continue to grow. A new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reveals 1.2 million more head of cattle now than this time five years ago.
As of July 1, there were an estimated 103 million head of cattle in the U.S.
That’s up four percent from 98.2 million head in 2015 and up 1.2 million from the 97.8 million head in 2012.
There are also more cows and heifers that have calved, according to the report. That number is up five percent from 2015 to 41.9 million head now.
In 2012, there were an estimated 39.7 million cows and heifers that calved.
The calf crop this year is estimated at 36.3 million, up from 34 million in 2015.
American dairymen are also raising slightly more milk cows this year. USDA estimates there are 9.4 million milk cows now compared to the 9.3 million in 2015 and 9.23 million in 2012.
Those numbers do not include heifers raised for milk cow replacement.
As of July 1, there were 16.2 million heifers over 500 pounds in the United States. Of those, 4.7 million were for beef cow replacement, 4.2 million were for milk cow replacement and 7.3 million were classified as “other heifers.”
Ranchers are raising 14.5 million steers over 500 pounds this year. There are an estimated 2 million bulls in that same weight class and 28 million calves under 500 pounds.
Canadian ranchers are raising slightly more cattle this year. As of July 1, there were an estimated 13 million head of cattle in Canada. That’s up slightly from the 12.9 million head raised at this time last year.
The report indicates there are 4.74 million head of cows and heifers that have calved in Canada this year. That’s up one percent over the year.
The full report is available here.