The U.S. cattle herd, in­cluding calves, was down slightly on Jan. 1 compared to last year, according to numbers released last week in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s twice-yearly cattle report.

The all cattle and calves number fell to 94.4 million head, from 94.8 million on Jan. 1, 2019. The loss was felt across categories, with heifers, steers and bulls all losing between 1% to 2% of inventory. The all-calves herd rose ...