According to Statistics Canada, Canadian livestock numbers continue to drop.

Cattle, hog and sheep inventories were all down on July first, compared to the same date in 2018.

With the exception of a few small increases, Canadian cattle inventories have declined year over year since 2005. On July 1, 2019, Canadian farmers had 12.3 million cattle on their farms, down 1.3% from July 1, 2018. Inventories were 27.4% below their peak level recorded in July 2005. Alberta had the largest cattle inventories among the provinces, accounting for 40.1% of the national total. Combined, Alberta and Saskatchewan represented close to two-thirds of total Canadian cattle inventories.

During the first half of 2019, total disposition of cattle and calves rose 2.8% compared with the same period in 2018, driven by higher cattle slaughter levels and increased exports. Total cattle slaughter increased 1.3% to 1.7 million head over the first six months of 2019, marking the fourth consecutive year-over-year increase. During the first half of 2019, international exports of cattle increased 21.1% to 414,000 head compared with the same period in 2018.

Hog producers reported 14.0 million hogs, down less than 0.1% from July 1, 2018. This was the second consecutive year-over-year decrease. However, the hog inventory remained 10.8% above the level from a decade earlier. On July 1, Quebec had the largest hog inventories among the provinces, accounting for close to one-third of the Canadian total. Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba together represented over 80% of total Canadian hog inventories.

Canada exported 2.6 million hogs in the first half of 2019, down 4.1% from the same period in 2018. Hog slaughter increased in Canada in the first six months of 2019, up 0.2% from the same period in 2018 to 10.8 million head.

Inventories of sheep and lambs declined 2.0% to 1,040,200 head from July 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019. Inventories were 8.6% below their level recorded in July 2011.