John Maday, Managing Editor, Drovers CattleNetwork  |   July 22, 2011

Today’s mid-year Cattle Inventory report from USDA shows what most expected – most classes of beef cattle have declined since one year ago. The total inventory for all cattle and calves in the United States as of July 1, 2011, totaled 100 million head, 1 percent below the 101.1 million on July 1, 2010. Beef cows, at 31.4 million, also were down 1 percent from a year ago, as were steers weighing 500 pounds or more, calves under 500 pounds and all heifers 500 pounds and over.

Cattle and calves on feed for slaughter, at 12.2 million, were up 3 percent from a year ago.

The biggest decline is in beef replacement heifers, which are down 5 percent from one year ago as drought and high input costs prevent producers from expanding their breeding herds in spite of strong calf prices.

Read the full report from USDA.