Industry
A Decade of Beef Cow Herd Dynamics
By Derrell Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension
The January 1, 2018 beef cow
herd inventory of 31.723 million
head was very close to the 2009
herd size of 31.794 million head
a decade earlier. However, the
industry has been through quite
a bit since then and some short
and long-term changes are
evident in the current situation
among major beef cow states.
For more than half of the
last decade, the U.S. beef
cow herd continued a nearly
uninterrupted liquidation that
began in 1996 and continued
84 | JUNE/JULY 2018
until 2014. The only exception
was a short-lived expansion
attempt in 2005-2006, that
added a minimal 171 thousand
head to the herd size before
resuming liquidation in 2007.
From 2009 to 2014, the U.S. beef
cow herd dropped by 2.708
million head, with the final
two million head the result of
severe drought in the Southern
Plains from 2011 through 2013.
Overdue herd expansion began
in 2014 with a total recovery
of 2.638 million head by 2018.
However, some interesting
short and long run trends are
evident among major beef
cattle states in the last decade.
Texas, the la rgest beef cow state,
had a beef cow inventory of 5.17
million head at the beginning
of the decade in 2009. By 2014,
the Texas beef cow inventory
was down 24.4 percent to 3.91
million head, the lowest state
beef cow inventory since 1958.
Since 2014, the Texas beef cow
herd has added 675 thousand
head, recovering 54 percent of
the 1.26 million head decrease