On January 1, Statistics Canada counted 11,850,000 cows in Canada — a 26-year low. Now US estimates of the Canadian cattle population are that by 2018 it will be down to 11,725,000.
“Canadian cattle farm numbers have continued to contract as ranchers retire without successors,” reads a new report by the United States Foreign Agricultural Service.
Canada’s ratio of cows to citizens remains in steep decline: in 1945 there were seven cows for every 10 Canadians; early this year that ratio had dropped to three cows per 10 Canadians.