In mid-February, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The Census provides a comprehensive look at the structure of agricultural that complements the regular survey work on NASS, such as Cattle on Feed reports. For perspective, in 2022 there were 732,123 farms across the U.S. with a total inventory of 87,954,742 head of cattle. Both the number of farms with cattle and the total inventory of cattle are down or lower than when last measured this way in 2017. The Census provides different breakdowns of cattle on feed that give insights into feedlots and related trends.

 

 

Having cattle on feed is a...