A few years of exceptional cattle prices have been good news for rural communities and Canadian farmers.
And now Canadian cattle producers are responding by finally growing the cow herd.
Cow-calf numbers increased slightly in 2025, but a 1.9 per cent year-over-year growth rate in breeding cows in 2026 signals optimism.
There were 3.2 per cent more cattle on Canadian farms in 2026 compared to 2025, the largest increase since 2004.
That’s good news for those who rely on our beef industry and, hopefully, for consumers, as supply constraints have driven up costs at supermarkets.
It’s not just cattle numbers which are up; hog and sheep inventories are up across the country too.
Farmers are incredibly productive and able to increase supply when they decide it is in their interest to do so. Here’s hoping for a smooth and gradual increase in supply that doesn’t hammer prices.
Prices for cows, calves, feeder cattle and beef are all up, but so are input costs.
In Ontario, my gut feeling has been that there are more cows around, even though in my area of Middlesex County, there are way more cattle on feed than cows producing calves. A neighbour has significantly rebuilt their cow herd, however, and in driving through Ontario’s cattle country this summer, it seemed like there were more cows.
We need to be able to produce cows in Ontario. Maybe that’s further north. Maybe that’s on pockets of poorer land that’s surrounded by better land. There’s room in Lambton County for more cows.
Sustained better prices for cows will help encourage this growth.
Another question I’ve been pondering is if we’ve let our meat infrastructure atrophy and if that will challenge our competitive advantage in meat quality.
I spent time at the University of Guelph recently talking to leaders at the Ontario Agricultural College about the lack of meat scientists in the province and the country.
It’s a story that’s unfortunately been common in Canada in the past decade. We’ve taken our eye off the ball in areas where we win. Meat hasn’t been popular for funders of economic development. That money has gone to plant proteins. I’m all for growing plant proteins, as that’s also important for farmers, but high-quality meat proteins are also important.
If government isn’t going to invest, then the private sector needs to (it should be anyway), and the industry, on the production and the food side, watched as our meat science capacity atrophied.
There are no meat science professors at the University of Guelph, when there were five not that long ago. This can be fixed, but it requires focus, ambition and money.
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