Let’s Talk Ag Cattle Numbers and Size of Farms By Staci Emmn | Editorial There is speculation that the cattle numbers in Nevada are dropping and our farms are decreasing, and we are about to find out exactly where we are at in 2022. The USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) does a state agriculture overview that is updated for cattle and sheep in January of each year. They have completed their data collection for Nevada farmers and ranchers. This year our new count numbers will be released on January 31, 2022, according to Curtis Stock, USDA-NASS State Statistician. The question regarding Nevada livestock numbers came up on the 2022 University Cattlemen’s Update during the webinar. In 2020, there were 245,000 of beef cows and 470,000 head of cattle (including calves) in Nevada. There is some speculation that these numbers have decreased due to the drought conditions. At first glance, I would agree that we should expect a reduced number of cattle in the state. However, facilitating a Nevada Ag Outlook meeting on January 19, 2022, Stock gave a presentation about how USDA-NASS works, how they collect their data, and showed a graph of cattle counts over the past ten years. The graph below was provided by Stock at the meeting and illustrates historical numbers for Nevada. Overall, historical counts show that Nevada has decreased in beef numbers since 2001. There can be very good reasons for this, and I believe it is related to drought events and estate planning. In the 2017 agricultural census, the number of farms decreased, but the land in farms increased. The per farm
average of market value of product sold increased by 5% and the average of net cash farm income increased by 10%. The average farm also increased in the number of government payments received. What is interesting to me is the number of 2,000 plus-acre farms. There was an increase in these farms in 2002 and 2017. I question whether this is related to estate planning and taxes, or is there something else going on? The agriculture census is done every five years. The process will begin for the 2022 agriculture census this fall. I am really interested in these numbers and I think we should all be watching. There are other states that have a lot more farms, but how many farms do they have over 2,000 deeded acres? I say this because public grazing acreage that has a payment method of Animal Unit per Month (AUM) or Head Month (HM) is most likely excluded in Land in Farms. We really need some economists to analyze the farms by size in Nevada and get a reflection of our Nevada ranches if all public grazing lands are counted.
Graph Provided by: Curtis Stock, Nevada State Statistician, USDA, NASS January 19 at Nevada Ag Outlook online meeting. www.progressiverancher.com
In closing, we may see a decrease in Nevada’s livestock numbers. I believe rancher owners/managers had to make some tough decisions in 2021 when faced with drought and increased feed costs. I also realize that in October of 2021 Nevada got moisture that did help out some. It will also be interesting to see how many heifers are staying in the state as replacements. These are all something we can look into once the Nevada Livestock Report is released on January 31.
The Progressive Rancher
FEBRUARY 2022
21
