Texas ranks top in U.S. cattle inventory

All cattle and calves in the United States as of Jan. 1, 2015 totaled 89.8 million head, 1 percent above the 88.5 million as of Jan. 1, 2014, according to Drovers CattleNetwork.

Prior to 2014, the U.S. cattle inventory had not been under 90 million head for 60 plus years (since 1952). The U.S. cattle inventory was greater than 100 million head as recently as 1997.

Texas has the most cattle in the United States followed by Nebraska and Kansas. The cattle inventory in Texas is 11.8 million head, roughly 13 percent of all the cattle in the United States. Nebraska has 6.3 million head of cattle, slightly more than Kansas at 6 million head.

Texas has 369 times as many cattle as Rhode Island, Alaska and Delaware combined.