Cattle in Virginia

Angus cattle grazing in Louisa County, south of Lake Anna

Cows in Virginia come in two kinds - meat and dairy. In 2020, there were 1.45 million cattle in Virginia:¹

- Beef cows that have calved: 626,000

- Milk cows that have calved: 74,000

- Heifers 500 pounds and over for beef cow replacement: 93,000

- Heifers 500 pounds and over for dairy cow replacement: 33,000

- Heifers 500 pounds (other): 64,000

- Steers 500 pounds and over: 165,000

- Bulls 500 pounds and over: 40,000

- Calves under 500 pounds: 355,000

Milk in Virginia

meat rations for Union soldiers in the Civil War were marched behind the armies
Source: Library of Congress, Army beef swimming the Occoquan River, Virginia (by Alfred R. Waud, 1863)

in a heavily-grazed field, even the trees can show evidence of hungry cattle

Links

• Finest Butcher (Fauquier's Finest Custom Meat Processing, Inc.)
• Virginia Angus Association
• Hereford heritage (bred for beef originally in Herefordshire, England)
• Beef Today magazine

enslaved workers helped drive herds of cattle to market
Source: Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African Diaspora, The Droves

References