The severe drought that scorched pastures across the Southern Plains last summer helped shrink the nation's herd to its smallest size in more than six decades and encouraged the movement of animals to lusher fields in the northern and western parts of the U.S., a new report shows. The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Friday that the U.S. inventory of cattle
and calves totaled 89.3 million animals as of Jan. 1. That was down by
1.5 million cattle, or 2 percent, compared with this time a year ago. The agency says this is the
lowest January cattle inventory since 1952. It does two counts per year,
in January and July. The January report had been anxiously awaited
because it shows the impact of the drought as it spread across the
nation last summer and provides a state-by-state breakdown documenting
the shift of animals north. Texas, the nation's largest
cattle producing state, saw its herd shrink 5 percent to 11.3 million
head amid a multi-year drought. Nebraska's herd shrunk 2 percent to 6.3
million animals as the drought spread north this summer. In Kansas,
another hard hit state, the number of cattle shrunk 4 percent to 5.8
million animals as ranchers sold off animals as pastures dried up and
the price of hay skyrocketed. By contrast, North Dakota
ranchers expanded their herds by 6 percent to nearly 1.8 million head,
while South Dakota's cattle numbers grew 5 percent to 3.8 million head.
Montana, Idaho and Washington also boosted the size of their herds. In New Mexico, cattle numbers are
down for the third straight year and the number of ranchers looking to
sell off their herds and get out of the business continues to grow. The
overall herd is down to 1.3 million animals, the fewest since 1991. "It's trite, but it is the
perfect storm," said Caren Cowan, executive director of the New Mexico
Cattle Growers' Association. "We have no rain, there's no feed readily
available, what is available costs too much and the cost of
transportation has increased. We're just in a bad place."...more
1 comment:
When the cattle come back and the sheep are driven back into their ranges they will be met by the new pack of grey wolves turned loose by the evil empire USFWL Service. Won't that be just great? The Service has deemed that this is the best thing for the SW and if we don't like it we can lump it. They once had a Final Plan but chunked it in the wastebasket when it didn't met their expectations. Now they have increased the release area by tens of thousands of acres, affecting more and more livestock producers, wildlife and the culture and practices of the SW area for generations to come. Maybe!
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