Lower exports are one of the reasons for the higher numbers
New data from Statistics Canada shows higher sheep and cattle inventories on Jan. 1 of this year compared to 2025.
Stats Canada’s livestock estimates report counted 11.1 million head of cattle on farms, compared to 10.9 million head in 2025.
This 2.5 percentage increase represents the first annual increase since 2018.
“Inventories rose in all categories of cattle and calves on January 1, 2026, on account of increased international imports paired with reductions in slaughter and international exports,” Stats Canada says.
Here’s the cattle breakdown between Prairie provinces.
Alberta has the highest number of cattle as of Jan. 1 with 4.85 million head. That figure is up from 4.68 million in 2025, and the highest inventory since Stats Canada counted 4.93 million head in 2019.
Next is Saskatchewan.
The province had about 2.11 million head of cattle at the beginning of the year. That’s up from 2.070 in 2025. Between 2018 and 2026, Saskatchewan’s highest cattle inventory was in January 2021 with 2.265 million head.
And Manitoba rounds out the Prairies with its 920,000 head of cattle, up from 905,000 in January 2025.
Farmers in that province had their highest cattle inventory in January 2018 with 1.060 million head.
Stats Canada’s most recent report also illustrated an increase in sheep and lamb inventories.
On Jan. 1, Canadian farmers had 833,000 head, up from about 809,000 in 2025.
Alberta leads the way with about 163,000 head, followed by 79,000 in Saskatchewan and about 75,000 in Manitoba.
One area with lower numbers according to the Stats Canada report is hog inventories.
Canadian farmers reported having 13.9 million hogs as of Jan. 1, down from about 14 million in 2025.
Manitoba farmers had the most in Western Canada with 3.35 million hogs. Saskatchewan and Alberta followed with 925,000 and 1.5 million hogs, respectively.