As 2023 began, the January 1 inventory data showed that the number of beef heifers calving was down 5.1 percent year over year, to the lowest level since 2011. The question of how the beef cow herd inventory would change would therefore depend on how beef cow slaughter changed throughout the year.
From the beginning, some additional beef herd liquidation was likely. Given the low inventory of bred heifers, beef cow slaughter would have to decrease by roughly 24 percent year over year in order to hold the beef cow inventory steady. That would have dropped the beef cow culling rate from…
