MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record cattle stock in Uruguay

Uruguay's cattle stock increased 3,7% over the previous year and now stands at 11,689,000, the highest in almost thirty years. This means the increase was equivalent to 415,000 head, according to the latest release from Uruguay's Cattle Census Office, DICOSE.

However the number of sheep continues to drop and the total flock stands at 9,798,000, a 10,5% contraction from a year ago.

The Dicose poll indicates that the number of Bovine Cattle Units increased 2,8%, from 8,724,000 in June 2002 to 8,965,000 in June 2003. The Ovine Cattle Units dropped 10,3% from 2,013000 to 1,808,000. The sum of bovine and ovine Cattle Units adds to 10,737,000 in June 2002 and to 10,774 in June 2003, a 2,8% increase.

The reproduction cattle stock remained almost unchanged with a slight increase in the number of calves, 3,1%. However the number of cattle for fattening, 1 and 2 years old jumped 16,7%

The number of one and two years steers increased 15,8% reaching 1,136,000 head, however the number of those over three years dropped 4,2%. Regarding sheep, the number of reproduction ewes dropped almost 10% from 5,582,000 to 5,031,000. Consumption ewes also contracted 25,3%, 577,000 to 431,000.