Cattle Inventory Largely Unchanged in NW

The USDA released their annual look at cattle inventory throughout the country and while overall the number of cattle is on the rise, the Northwest was mostly stagnant.

National Agricultural Statistics Service Regional Director Chris Mertz said, “In the state of Washington, the all cattle and calf numbers actually, our estimate is the same 1.15 million head. Oregon with an increase of one percent to 1.32 million head.”

Those numbers focused on January 1^st of 2017 versus January 1^st of 2016.

Mertz noted that ranchers will use a lot of factors when they determine whether to expand, maintain or reduce their herd.

“A lot of that depends on the commodity prices, price of inputs, feed, of grain and hay and then the price of milk shows influence on the decrease on the number of milk cows.”

The biggest change came in Oregon which saw a 15 percent jump in cattle on feed, but Mertz noted that’s likely due to the low numbers of cattle on feed in the state.

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