The U.S. cattle herd is still in a contraction phase. USDA released its Cattle Inventory report yesterday. The total inventory of all cattle and calves as of 1 January was 87.2 million head; that compares to 89.3 million head, or 98 percent, of the cattle inventory on 1 January 2022. That is the smallest U.S. cattle herd since 1951.
Yesterday’s report made a few revisions on prior reports dating back to July 2022. The most significant was the beef heifer replacements for 1 January 2023. Last year, beef replacement heifers were reported at 5.1637 million head, or 94 percent of the January 2022 total. In this year’s revision, that number dropped to 4.9296 million head, which puts replacement heifers in the beginning of 2023 at...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices extended their rally today, supported by several developments, including escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and growing concerns about supply disruptions. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to remove 50 perc...
Key Takeaways: The agricultural trade surplus has become a sizable deficit: the balance swung from a $40.1 billion surplus in 2011 to a $40.7 billion deficit in 2025. Imports kept growing while exports lost momentum: between 2020 and 2025, agricultural imports increased 45 percent, compa...
USDA released its October Cattle on Feed report Friday, showing 11.4 million cattle in feedlots with capacity for 1,000 head or more, slightly below last year. September placements were the lowest for the month since records began in 1996, marking the third consecutive month of placements sett...
Total Red Meat & Poultry September 2026 total red meat and poultry stocks totaled 1.97 billion pounds, down 1.4 percent from August despite typically increasing 0.8 percent during the month, and were 1.5 percent below September 2025 levels. The decline pushed total inventories to a new five...
