weather


Connect with
our community:

Follow us on twitterJoin us on Twitter


Quick links:


Share the EXTRA



















































Bookmark and Share


Cattle Industry Shifts

Ag Census shows a shifting of cattle away from Southern Plains into the Upper Midwest.

Several news reports the week of May 12 indicate Cargill will close another Texas feedlot in the coming year. The company announced last year that it would close its Lockney yard. Now it appears the lot near Dalhart will close some time in 2015. These closures come on the heels of the company’s shuttering of its Plainview, Texas, beef slaughter plant last year.


It is clear that the Southern Plains cattle-feeding sector that emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s is, at least to some degree, on the decline. Recent information from USDA helps us see that decline quite clearly.


USDA’s Census of Agriculture is generally a historic record of the condition of U.S. agriculture. We say historic for two reasons:



Cattle and Calves: Inventory 2007-2012

Click map to see larger version

Among the information in this year’s Census are the two maps shown at right that document the changes of total cattle and calf inventories and beef cow inventories from 2007 to 2012. That five years, of course, may be the most dynamic period that the livestock/poultry sectors have witnessed in the past generation. Biofuels-driven grain prices and, more recently, severe droughts have caused changes for all species, none more significantly than beef cattle.


Beef Cow inventory:2007-2012

Click map to see larger version

The top chart includes all cattle and calves — beef cows, feedlots and dairies. The drought pressure in Texas and Oklahoma — and even Kansas and Missouri — is clear, but note that the Upper Midwest has gained cattle numbers. A big part of that is growth in feedlot inventories that have, subsequent to 2012, carried Nebraska to the top spot in state cattle-on-feed rankings.


Higher dairy cow numbers have also contributed to the growth in cattle numbers in Iowa and surrounding states, but the reduction of numbers in the South and the growth of numbers in the North are clear. Ample supplies of dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS) from Upper-Midwest ethanol plants are a factor in this growth, as well.


The bottom chart represents only beef cows and documents the significant decrease (3.88 million head) that has been seen in U.S. numbers. Here again, the effects of drought conditions are clear — and remember that this just measures through 2012. The drought situation in western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas is no better now and is perhaps worse in some areas.


We were surprised to see the extent of the reductions in Kentucky and Tennessee, but again, timing is important. Those states’ beef cow herds were at or near their historic highs in 2007, and those numbers have been pressured by higher feed costs (and in 2008 and 2009 lower calf prices) and, at least in 2012, poor pasture conditions.


The 2014 Census of Agriculture can be accessed at www.agcensus.usda.gov. The maps shown here can be accessed by clicking on “Ag Atlas Maps” in the “Data Search Tools” section of that Census homepage.


comment on this story

Editor’s Note: Reprinted with permission from the May 15 Daily Livestock Report, published by Steve Meyer and Len Steiner and sponsored by the CME Group. For more information visit www.dailylivestockreport.com.





[Click here to go to the top of the page.]