Cattle in the 2012 Agricultural Census

Gordon Groover, Extension Economist, Farm Management, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Virginia Tech

The 2012 Agricultural Census contains a wealth of information for all sectors of U.S. and  Virginia agriculture. One of Virginia’s most widely dispersed commodities in Virginia is the cattle herd, found from the Alleghany Mountains to the Tidewater.

Table 1 present a statewide comparison of the herd from 2007 to the 2012.  The number of Virginia farms that reported a cattle inventory in 2012 fell 8% from 25,957 to 23,911 head, yet the reported inventory of cattle and calves on Virginia farm increased 4% from 1,566,217 to 1,631,882 head.  The average herd size for the reported inventory increased from 60 to 68 head an increase of approximately 13%.  

Table 1: Description of VA Cattle Herd

Table 2 provides some insights on the decline (8%) in Virginia cattle farms. The primary reason was the 13% decline in number of farmers reporting cattle herds of less than 49 head. These farmers either didn’t continue their cattle enterprise and/or reduced the total number of cattle by 10%.  Farms that were included in two larger groups, 50-99 and 100-199 head, saw a marginal increase in both the number of farms and cattle (Table 2).  The biggest change occurred on farms with 200-499 head with the number of farm increasing 19% and an increase in cattle of 18% or an increase of 67,568 head since 2007. The largest farms (>500 head) saw moderate increases in numbers of farms (5%) and cattle (8%), with a gain of 23,936 head.  Overall the average herd size reported in Table 2 did not change noticeably from 2007 to 2012 with the exception of farms with more than 500 head, where the average increased by 21 head from 825 to 846 head. 

Table 2: Description of VA Cattle Herd by Size Categories

For cattle on feed (Table 3), both the number of cattle and the farms reporting cattle on feed declined by double digits from 2007 to 2012.  There were 251 (-43%) fewer farms with cattle on feed and 8,273 (-29%) fewer head fed. However, the farms remaining in the sector had a larger average capacity increasing from 49 to 61 head.

 Table 3: Cattle on Feed

 Item

 Virginia farms reporting cattle sales (Table 4) declined by 8% and the number of head sold also decreased by 4%.  However, the total value of those sales increased by 23%, reflecting the higher overall prices for cattle in 2012. The average sales value per animal and the numbers sold per farm increased.    

 Table 4: Cattle Sales (cattle and calves)

 Item

The Ag Census reports from a much broader base of farmers classified as dairy than what is reported by Virginia Department of Agricultural and Consumer Service which are based on farms holding permits to sell Grade A milk. However, the Census numbers provide a snapshot of all farms that self-report dairy activities. The number of farms (Table 5) that report milk cows or heifers that have calved increased by 14 (1%) farms, while the total inventory of cows and heifers decreased by 5% or 4,812 head.   This inventory decline led to a decrease in the average herd size from 86 to 81 head.  Information on milk sales was not reported in the 2007 Census. The 2012 Census reported milk sales of $347,204,000 for the state, averaging $471,104 per farm and  $5,847 per head.    

Table 5: Dairy Cattle (Cows and heifers that calved) and Milk Sales

New to the 2012 Ag Census is Table 44 Farms by Concentration of Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold in 2012. Listed in Table 6 below are concentration information for cattle and dairy farms.  This table shows only 5 of the 23,911 cattle farms and 14,177 head of the 1,631,882 cows in Virginia account for 10% of all market value of cattle sold during 2012. To reach 25% requires 69 farms (64,643 cows) and so on.  Dairy production shows similar levels of concentration with only 3 of the 1,168 farms and 6,974 cows and heifers in Virginia to achieve 10% of sales milk sold in 2012.  These results show that overall a small number of our farms produces a majority of the market value of livestock products in Virginia.

Table 6: Farms by Concentration of Market Value of Agricultural Products Sold in 2012

To explore additional details about, U.S., Virginia and/or individual counties visit the USDA  2012 Ag Census web site at http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2012/.