Cattle Imports and Exports in North America for July 2022. The integration of beef and cattle markets in North America contains trade in live cattle between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.
For this year, U.S. cattle imports calculated 951,910 head, down 6.3% year-over-year. Absolute cattle exports thus far in 2022 are 192,415 head, down 36.7% from the record cattle export total last year. Net cattle imports for the January – July period are 759.495 head, up 6.7%.
Also, Cattle imports from Mexico for the year-to-date are falling to 30.2% year-over-year. The seven-month year-to-date total of 488,449 heads is the least for the period since 2009.
Over 99% of cattle imports from Mexico consist of feeder cattle, which include 84.6% steers and 15.4% heifers thus far in 2022.
Cattle exports to Mexico for the year-to-date include 64,226 head, up 73.7% of which 79.9% are feeder cattle, with the remainder purebred beef and dairy animals. Net cattle imports from Mexico are down 36.0% from last year.
Cattle imports from Canada contain both slaughter and feeder cattle. For the January – July period, total cattle imports from Canada are 463,461 head, up 46.7% year-over-year. This total has 307,302 head of slaughter cattle consisting of 40.1% slaughter cows/bulls and 59.9% fed steers and heifers. Imports of slaughter cows/bulls are up 13.8% year-over-year and imports of fed cattle are up 28.4% percent over the previous year.
A total of 146,845 head of feeder cattle have been imported from Canada in the first seven months of the year, with heifers making up 78.9% of total feeder imports. Feeder cattle imports are up 152.6% year-over-year for the January – July period.
Although cattle
Imports Export aggregates sound large in absolute numbers, the role of imported cattle is rather modest in domestic markets. Imports of slaughter cows/bulls for the first seven months of 2022 accounted for 2.8% of total cow and bull slaughter in the U.S. during the duration.
Imported fed cattle accounted for 1.2% of absolute steer and heifer slaughter during the same period. Net imports of feeder cattle from Mexico and Canada from January – July represented 1.3% of the estimated feeder supply on July 1.
