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A shift in the US beef cow inventory is likely

A livestock economist says he wouldn’t be surprised to see a large shift in the US beef cow inventory for 2019 when that report is released early next year.

University of Missouri’s Scott Brown says overall, beef cow slaughter for the first 8 months of 2018 is up nearly 12 percent on the year.

He tells Brownfield weather has been a huge factor.  “Region 6 beef cow slaughter is 11 percent higher, primarily Texas and Oklahoma, and that shows you what happens when you have a dry weather situation.”

But, Brown says it’s a different story in other parts of the country.  “Region 4, think of all those Southeast states, are actually 8.4 percent below year-ago levels when you look at beef cow slaughter.  It just reminds me with good weather, we’re looking to add cows.”

In addition to Texas and Oklahoma, he says the January report will likely show an increase in beef cow slaughter for Missouri.

The Cattle Inventory report comes out in January and provides estimates for total inventory of beef cows, milk cows, bulls, replacement heifers, steers and heifers, and number of calves born in the previous year by state and the US.