After years of drought, high feed prices, low cattle prices, and more forced farmers to reduce beef cattle numbers, the U.S. beef herd is increasing again in size.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the U.S. cattle and calf inventory bottomed out in 2014 at 88.5 million head. The 2016 herd size was 92 million head, a 3 percent increase from the 89 million head in 2015.
For perspective, the U.S.beef herd ranged between 94 and 98 million head in the 2000s, and peaked at 135 million head in 1975.
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