This didn't surprise me.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s...

The lingering effects of drought across the Great Plains in recent years have led to another decrease in the U.S. cattle herd.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reports that the U.S. inventory of cattle and calves totaled 87.7 million animals as of Jan. 1. That was down by about 1.6 million cattle, or 2 percent, compared with this time last year.

The agency says this is the lowest January inventory since 1951.

I know during the historic drought of 2011 we sent 90% of our cows to slaughter, and most people I know did likewise. Then droughts in other areas of the country came and I figure the people up there did the same thing.

We're more than halfway back to our previous numbers and we keep adding, but animal prices are still through the roof. It's not a good time to buy cattle, but it's a great time to sell and I think that helps motivate people to grow their herds any way they can. The cows at auction around here are going for over $1.50 per hundredweight.

Yes, we have fewer cows than ever before and no real plans to restock. I keep hearing that we should consider drought to be the "normal" condition for Texas. I know our pastures have not fully recovered from 2011.

Same here. Plus we still have hundreds of dead standing trees that died in the drought.

Yep, and they are just waiting to fall on a fence...

So true!

I think here in the Ozarks we have more cattle now than there has been in years .I know of several fields that have had new fences built that hadn't had any cattle on the fields for 20 years

You must be the ones who bought all the cows we sold in 2011!

We bought some of them and had to sell in 2012 we had a bad hay crop. but they have been replace last year and it looks like we will have a good first cutting this year

I've been raising beef cattle in northern michigan for 15 years. It is amazing how many farms used to have cattle that liquidated for good over the last 5 years. A lot of the farmers around here have gotten older and no longer raise small beef herds. Our nation may have a hard time getting the US cattle population back up.

we just heard on the news the price of beef is going to skyrocket . looks like rabbit, chicken & pork will be eaten at out house

You can't even buy rabbit around here. At least not in the Supermarkets.

We are raising our own meat rabbits & they sure yummy

That sounds wonderful.