The January 31 USDA biannual cattle report showed another drop in both Minnesota and U.S. cow numbers. Minnesota milk cows dropped by 5,000 to 445,000 and dairy replacements by 30,000 to 225,000 since last January. Across the U.S., milk cows dropped only slightly by 18,800 to 9.33 million, and dairy replacement heifers fell by 64,500 to 4.64 million. Both the state and U.S. dairy cow herd has stayed relatively constant for the previous five years.

All cattle and calves dropped by 400,000 to 94.8 million, with numbers down about 1 percent in most categories, with beef replacement heifers down 2 percent and “other heifers” up 1 percent. Read the full report.