Canada’s beef herd has grown by .3 percent, but it remains 20 percent lower than the highs recorded in 2005
Canada’s livestock population is holding steady with just a hint of expansion in the cattle and hog herds.
The Statistics Canada livestock census for Jan. 1 reported that the beef herd has grown by .3 percent, the first increase since 2013. Total inventory of beef cattle remains almost 20 percent lower than the highs recorded in 2005.
The total beef cow inventory was 3.83 million head, which is slightly lower than last year. However, four percent more heifers have been retained as breeding replacements.
A few more beef cattle are available, but the number of farms with cattle has declined to 81,590 from 82,240 last year.
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The average herd size is 147 head.
The eastern provinces showed no growth, but Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia had slight increases in their provincial herds.
Manitoba grew 2.3 percent to 1.1 million head from 1.09 million head, while Saskatchewan fell .7 percent to 2.280 million had from 2.29 million.
Alberta grew by about a half of a percent to 4.925 million head from 4.095 million, while B.C. grew by 1.8 percent to 580,000.
The Canadian dairy herd was 1.4 million cows and heifers, which was a .4 percent increase from last year.
Exports declined 33.2 percent to 831,100 head in 2015, partly because Canadian cattle prices were strong in the first half of the year.
However the CME Financial Group reported that the outflow of Canadian slaughter cows is growing again. Total shipments of Canadian slaughter cows to the U.S. were 35,441 head for the first six weeks of 2016, which is 52 percent higher than the same period a year ago.
The national pork inventory indicated small growth at .7 percent over Jan. 1 2015. About 13.3 million hogs were recorded.
Some growth was noted in the East with Ontario being the strongest at 1.8 percent more pigs this year.
Manitoba’s herd was almost stable, while Alberta was up 1.7 percent and Saskatchewan was up .9 percent. B.C.’s hog herd declined 2.2 percent.
Canada exported 5.8 million hogs last year, which was up 16.4 percent from 2014 but down 42.4 percent from the 2007 export peak.
Sheep farmers reduced their flocks in every province. The total reduction was 1.9 percent. The total number of sheep on Jan. 1 was 826,00, down from 844,300 last year at the same time.
barbara.duckworth@producer.com
