For the second time in three years, USDA has suspended the mid-year Cattle inventory report, issued in July, and cited the same reason – budget constraints – as in 2013. “The decision to suspend this report was not made lightly, but was necessary, given our available fiscal and program resources,” said USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. With no July report on U.S. cattle, NASS said it would not issue a report on combined U.S. and Canadian cattle numbers. The Cattle report had been scheduled for July 22 and the combined report for Aug 23.
When USDA suspended the mid-year Cattle report in 2013 as part of a belt-tightening that axed a handful of reports, traders said the Cattle inventory report issued in January was the more valuable document. The reports list cattle totals by sex and weight and the size of the calf crop. The Jan 29 Cattle report said there were nearly 92 million head of cattle and calves in the country, up 3 percent from the previous January and the second year of an expansion in cattle numbers.