According to the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Husbandry, the country's cattle herd will increase 1.4% to 207 million head in 2007 compared with 204 million in 2006. Slaughter is expected to reach 45 million head with 9.2 million tons of beef produced. 

In global terms, the country will become the second largest cattle producer and will rank first in terms of gross production value at R$32.8 billion ($16.2 billion).