An unprecedented shift in the U.S. dairy cattle population could signal uncertainty ahead in terms of milk production, cow numbers, and prices – for both the milk and the animals.
At the center of the current conversation: heifers, and more specifically, lack of them. In the most recent USDA Cattle Inventory report, released January 31, 2025, the inventory of dairy heifers weighing 500 pounds or more totaled just 3.914 million head. That’s the lowest count for that population since 1978.
Included in the total are heifers expected to calve into the milking herd in 2025, estimated at 2.5 million head. That figure has dropped precipitously every year since 2017, when about 600,000 head of additional heifers freshened. The current number of heifers expected to calve is also the lowest since the USDA began tracking that figure in 2001.
By Maureen Hanson
February 24, 2025
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