Chris Hurt Herd Quotations

Beef producers continued to expand the breeding herd for the second year. Beef cow numbers increased by 1 percent during 2005 after a small rise in 2004. The total number of cows increased by 338,000 head and the increase was concentrated in the western Corn Belt, where Missouri increased by 115,000 cows and Iowa by 40,000.

Much like the beef herd, heifer retention for herd replacements was up 4 percent and will allow an increase in the number of milk cows by nearly 1 percent this year.

Perhaps this is signaling a reversal of the longer-run trend of the breeding herd moving away from the eastern Corn Belt. In 1990, 27 percent of the U.S. breeding herd was in the eastern Corn Belt. That portion declined steadily to a low of only 17.2 percent in 2004.

Overall, the U.S. breeding herd has been trending lower as a result of the sow herd shifting to Canada and as a result of higher productivity.