New numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) show the U.S. cattle inventory is up 2 percent from a year earlier, the first growth in inventory since 2006. This news release from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) says there are 98.4 million head of cattle on U.S. farms.

Other key findings in the report were:

The 2015 calf crop is expected to be 34.3 million, of which 24.8 million were born during the first half of the year and 9.5 million are expected to be born in the last six months of 2015.
Of the 98.4 million cattle and calves, 39.8 million were all cows and heifers that have calved.
Of the 39.8 million cows and heifers that have calved, 30.5 million head were beef cows and 9.3 million were milk cows.

The numbers are based on an NASS survey of more than 10,000 operators across the nation during the first half of July.