Head count: India is world’s cattle king
March 22, 2017
Americans home on the range in Texas or Nebraska, especially, might wonder how in the world any other country in the world could have more cattle than the United States.
Well, turns out, it’s not even that close. According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the United States is a distant fourth in the 2017 world cattle inventory.
According to the FAS’s counting methodology, which includes water buffalo in its calculations, India is home to the world’s largest cattle inventory — more than 30% of the world’s nearly 1 billion cattle.
Recent projections of 2017 beef exports projects the top four exporting countries to be Brazil, India, Australia and the United States.
Well, turns out, it’s not even that close. According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), the United States is a distant fourth in the 2017 world cattle inventory.
According to the FAS’s counting methodology, which includes water buffalo in its calculations, India is home to the world’s largest cattle inventory — more than 30% of the world’s nearly 1 billion cattle.
Recent projections of 2017 beef exports projects the top four exporting countries to be Brazil, India, Australia and the United States.
| World Cattle Inventory | |||
| Source: FAS/USDA | |||
| Country | 2017 | World % | |
| 1 | India | 303,350,000 | 30.39% |
| 2 | Brazil | 226,037,000 | 22.64% |
| 3 | China | 100,085,000 | 10.03% |
| 4 | United States | 93,500,000 | 9.37% |
| 5 | European Union | 89,250,000 | 8.94% |
| 6 | Argentina | 53,515,000 | 5.36% |
| 7 | Australia | 27,750,000 | 2.78% |
| 8 | Russia | 18,430,000 | 1.85% |
| 9 | Mexico | 16,500,000 | 1.65% |
| 10 | Turkey | 14,047,000 | 1.41% |
| 11 | Canada | 12,100,000 | 1.21% |
| 12 | Uruguay | 11,845,000 | 1.19% |
| World Total | 998,313,000 | ||
Category: Agriculture