Cattle farmers in Iowa and across the country have been working to rebuild the national cattle herd by adding more replacement heifers to their herds. One market analyst says 2014 will provide opportunities to help farmers continue to raise more cattle.

“The forecast for 2014 is 140,000-head increase over the previous year. We’ll nearly double that increase in 2015 at 250,000 head,” Lance Zimmerman, a market analyst with CattleFax, told cattlemen at the Iowa Cattle Industry Convention in Altoona last week.

He said farmers have been adding replacement heifers since 2010, but “extreme” culling has taken heifers out of the breeding cycle.
Zimmerman said the industry is making a transition from consolidation to stabilization and expansion.

“It’s going to take...