Canadian Livestock Inventories Decline

Feb 27, 2020

According to Statistics Canada, cattle, hog and sheep inventories were all down on January 1, 2020, compared with the same date last year.

Canadian farmers had 11.2 million cattle on their farms, down 1.9%. Inventories were 24.8% below the peak they reached in January 2005.

Hog producers reported 13.9 million hogs on January 1, 2020, down 0.6% from last year. This was the second consecutive year-over-year decrease.

Inventories of sheep and lambs was down 4 per cent. Inventories were 19.3% below their highest level recorded in January 2004.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.