Where beef cows are kept: the leading US counties
2022 Census of Agriculture · Head on farms on December 31, 2022. Counties with a published figure: 2,156
US farms had 29,214,479 beef cows at the end of 2022; Cherry County, Nebraska, had the most of any county with a published figure.
The ten leading counties hold 2.9% of the national total. Texas is the leading state, with 2.2 times the figure of Oklahoma.
The national figure is down 7.9% on the 2017 census.
The 25 leading counties
Ranked among the 2,156 counties with a published figure. Another 862 counties grow or keep some but have their figure withheld to protect individual farms, so they are not ranked.
| # | County | State | Head | Share of US |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cherry County | Nebraska | 184,688 | 0.63% |
| 2 | Holt County | Nebraska | 92,518 | 0.32% |
| 3 | Elko County | Nevada | 82,082 | 0.28% |
| 4 | Meade County | South Dakota | 81,773 | 0.28% |
| 5 | Lincoln County | Nebraska | 75,582 | 0.26% |
| 6 | Malheur County | Oregon | 72,268 | 0.25% |
| 7 | Lavaca County | Texas | 68,262 | 0.23% |
| 8 | Okeechobee County | Florida | 66,478 | 0.23% |
| 9 | Osceola County | Florida | 64,811 | 0.22% |
| 10 | Houston County | Texas | 63,017 | 0.22% |
| 11 | Harney County | Oregon | 60,191 | 0.21% |
| 12 | Perkins County | South Dakota | 58,994 | 0.20% |
| 13 | Polk County | Florida | 58,491 | 0.20% |
| 14 | Fayette County | Texas | 57,925 | 0.20% |
| 15 | Hawaii County | Hawaii | 57,744 | 0.20% |
| 16 | Polk County | Missouri | 57,434 | 0.20% |
| 17 | Tripp County | South Dakota | 56,999 | 0.20% |
| 18 | Carbon County | Wyoming | 56,154 | 0.19% |
| 19 | Corson County | South Dakota | 55,468 | 0.19% |
| 20 | Fall River County | South Dakota | 54,827 | 0.19% |
| 21 | Fremont County | Wyoming | 54,022 | 0.18% |
| 22 | Robertson County | Texas | 52,855 | 0.18% |
| 23 | Morton County | North Dakota | 52,567 | 0.18% |
| 24 | Sheridan County | Nebraska | 51,871 | 0.18% |
| 25 | Lawrence County | Missouri | 51,495 | 0.18% |
Leading states
| State | Head | Share of US | Since 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 4,360,026 | 14.9% | −4.7% |
| Oklahoma | 2,014,744 | 6.9% | −5.4% |
| Missouri | 1,968,954 | 6.7% | −9.0% |
| Nebraska | 1,721,243 | 5.9% | −9.2% |
| South Dakota | 1,538,320 | 5.3% | −14.5% |
| Kansas | 1,332,657 | 4.6% | −11.1% |
| Montana | 1,292,714 | 4.4% | −13.1% |
| Kentucky | 914,865 | 3.1% | −11.3% |
| North Dakota | 886,405 | 3.0% | −10.0% |
| Florida | 883,589 | 3.0% | +0.1% |
| Arkansas | 882,184 | 3.0% | −4.9% |
| Iowa | 858,556 | 2.9% | −8.5% |
| Tennessee | 857,327 | 2.9% | −5.4% |
| Alabama | 684,923 | 2.3% | −4.7% |
| California | 682,020 | 2.3% | −0.1% |
Source: USDA NASS, 2022 and 2017 Census of Agriculture. How to read these pages.