The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will soon publish its latest cattle reports that provide information on the total cattle inventory in the U.S. and each state, cattle on feed and cold storage inventory.

The reports will provide an insight into trends for the year.

“The U.S. cattle herd and markets have both experienced records over the last few years. Prices for cattle and beef have ripped through records, while the total inventory trended downward,” said Tracy Tomascik, Texas Farm Bureau associate director of Commodity and Regulatory Activities. “Farmers and ranchers are bracing for a shock to the market because prices have been better than ever. On the flip side, there is a lot of work to be accomplished to maintain consumer demand for beef when families see high prices at the meat counter.”

Consumers are feeling a lot of exhaustion from inflation, and, unfortunately, there may not be relief in story any time soon.

“If we take a look at where inflation rates are currently, you know they’re much lower than they’ve been over the past couple of years,” Bernt Nelson, American Farm Bureau Federation economist, said. “But even so, this is a rate of growth we’re talking about, so we’re still seeing some decent inflation, of increase in prices at the grocery store for some of our food products. If we look at beef and veal, for example, we’re up about 5.4%.”

All eyes will be on the cattle inventory report that USDA will release at the end of January.

“We’re anticipating some decrease in the overall cattle inventory,” Nelson said. “Overall, if we look at the industry expectations, what some of the analysts are throwing out there, they’re expecting even placements from last year, or even 101% of last year, and I find this a little bit surprising. Even if we look at a one to two percent decline, that still brings us down to that 86.5 million mark, and that’s still the fewest cattle we’ve had in 73 years.”