Cherry County, Neb., has the most beef cows of any single county in the United States. The 184,716 beef cows are more than twice the number as the county with the second most, Holt County, also in Nebraska. That’s according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, released last month by USDA.
The census also counted 466 beef cow operators in Cherry County, which is 10% more than were counted in the 2017 census. That means the average ranch in the county has a herd of 396 cows.
In terms of land area, Cherry County is large, 6009 square miles to be exact. Which makes it larger than the state of Connecticut, which measures 5,567 square miles.
Connecticut is not generally top of mind when it comes to beef cows, and the state only counts 5,897 cows, or just 3% of the number found in Cherry County. But Connecticut boasts more beef cow operators than Cherry County – 616 to 466, respectively, and that’s after losing 499 operations since the last census in 2017. Alas, the Connecticut operators have a meager average herd size at 9.6 cows.
