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Still no signs of growth in the cattle herd

An ag economist says the cattle cycle is stuck in neutral.  Josh Maples with the Mississippi State University Extension says, “We’re still looking for glimpses of heading towards expansion.”

He tells Brownfield while cattle producers aren’t liquidating their herds, they aren’t growing them either.  “Heifers in 2025 made up 31.7% of total cattle slaughtered in 2025,” he says.  “This was only down marginally from where we were in 2024.”

Maples says that year, heifers made up about 32 percent of total cattle slaughtered. “Neither of those levels are levels that you would see and think that we’re in any sort of retention phase,” he says. “Those are relatively large compared to true expansion in the cattle sector.”