American livestock has grown significantly

The US livestock has increased to 2 million animals in the past 103 years. This is according to the new summer report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The previous summer report, dated July 1, 2015, found that the U.S. livestock population consisted of 98,2 million animals. This means that there has been a growth of 2% in the past 4 years. 

Number of cows increasing
Cows make up a large part of the total American livestock, namely 41,9 million. That was 'only' 2015 million units in 39,8. So there has been a 2% growth in the past 5 years. 

The largest group of these falls under the heading 'slaughter cow', namely 32,5 million. That group has grown by 2% in 7 years. The share of dairy cows has grown by 1% to 9,4 million. The number of heifers (above 500 pounds) also increased by 3%. This brings the group to a total of 16,2 million animals. In 2015, there were 15,7 million heifers in the U.S. livestock population.

The calves (under 500 pounds) also show an enlargement of the herd. In 2015, that group consisted of 26,7 million animals. In 2017, that number grew by 5% to 28 million animals. 

Growth continues to increase
The USDA also reports that the number of calves will continue to grow in the coming period. The number of calves born in the past year is 3% higher than 2016 and even 6% higher than in 2015. It is striking that there is an increase of 4% and 8% respectively in calves born before 1 July. 

The US Department of Agriculture expects 2017 million calves to be born in the second half of 9,8.

Declining trend finally broken
The last time the livestock was this high was in 2008, when the livestock amounted to 104,3 million animals. In 1995, the American livestock was even 114,3 million animals. However, since 2004, the American livestock has not been able to increase and there has been a decrease of at least 1% every year. 

The year 2015 broke that trend with 98,2 million animals. There was no summer report released by the USDA last year. 

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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