Herd rebuilding is underway in the United States. There were thousands of cows culled in the 2010 - 2012 timeframe because of significant drought. Informa Economics Senior Vice President Mike Sands said Texas and Oklahoma is at the epicenter rebuilding the herd.
"Obviously it's not forgotten by anybody in the cattle business in this part of the world," Sands said. "From here all the way to the west coast, there are still lingering effects of the drought and that does have some on-going implications about how much expansion we really might see. It's still a very delicate balance. We got to continue to see favorable pasture conditions, good pond water, all of those types of things that we're typically looking at this time of year. So, it's not a slam dunk yet by any stretch of the imagination, but at least we have seen some rather significant improvements over the last couple of years."
he nation is already starting to see much bigger calf crop and the nation's beef production has declined as more heifers are held back and cows are retained longer in the herd. Sands said the nation's beef production last year declined by five percent, which is significant. He said there is no doubt heifer retention has had an impact on short term beef supplies. In looking longer term, Sands said there are several challenges even though it does not look beef production will expand very much this year and possibly the following year. Beef will have more competition this for the consumer dollar this year with larger supplies and lower prices for pork and chicken.
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