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Land constraints limiting rebuilding of the cattle herd

The owner of one of the largest sale barns in the country says access to land is contributing to the slow rebuilding of the cattle herd. Jackie Moore is with Joplin Regional Stockyards in Missouri.  “Anywhere where cattle country was, somebody that’s made a lot of money, has invested in those ranches,” he says. “It isn’t about cattle, it’s about hunting, it’s about recreation, it’s about all those things. We’re taking a lot of that country out of the mix, and we know we’re going to run many cows there, we’re just not going to do that.” 

He says the loss of productive farmland changes everything.  “We’re not going to have anywhere to put these cows,” he says.  “So we’re never going to build the cow herd back where it once was. It’s impossible.” 

But, he tells Brownfield, “We probably don’t need to as big as we’re getting these fat cattle with 900-or-1000-pound carcasses on all these steers, so maybe we don’t need them all.” 

Moore says he expects to see some expansion happening in different parts of the country, but widespread growth will be limited.  

The second of USDA’s biannual Cattle Inventory reports comes out July 24th, it contains inventory numbers, and the total of all cattle and calves in the United States.