Cattle Herd Increases

The U.S. cattle herd is increasing faster than expected. The USDA cattle inventory data on Friday reported all cattle and calves at 89.8 million head, up 1 percent from a year ago; expectations were for a decline of 0.1 percent. Also rising more than expected were beef cows, up 2 percent from last January and beef replacement heifers were up 4 percent from a year ago.