US cattle herd shrinks
US ranchers held 99.39 million head of cattle as of July 1, down 1.4% from a year earlier, according to the average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. That would be the smallest July herd since at least 1973, when the US Department of Agriculture data begins.
“If you’ve got fewer cattle, ultimately you’re going to have less beef,” Ron Plain, a livestock economist at the University of Missouri in Columbia, said. “We’re going to have new record cattle and beef prices in 2012.”
Conditions for cattle have deteriorated amid the most severe drought in Texas in a least a century and adverse weather in southern states.
More than 62% of the land area in a six-state region is experiencing “extreme” drought, according to the US Drought Monitor. Pasture and range conditions were rated “poor” or “very poor” in 86% of Texas in the week ended July 2.
