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“Too big, too fat, too inconsistent,” is how Hop Dickinson, former CEO of the American Hereford Association, described cattle in the 1990s.

More beef and lower prices should be positive for U.S. international trade.

Foreign demand for U.S. beef was down 13.2% in 2015 and has been down in two of the first three months of 2016.

Just 8% of U.S. pastures are in poor to very poor condition, according to USDA. It is a 2% improvement from last year.

Job growth has continued to drop the past few months, a sign that consumer beef demand could be in trouble.

U.S. cattle producers are in the midst of aggressive expansion.

The latest USDA cattle report shows a rapid expansion is underway with cattle and calf numbers up 3 percent and beef cow numbers up 4 percent in the past year. According to Purdue University Extension economist Chris Hurt, record-high cattle prices in the last half of 2014 and first half of 2015 raised excitement among beef cow producers.

Since the 2011 meltdowns ended their future as prized black “wagyu” beef, a rancher near the Fukushima nuclear power plant has given his cattle a new mission: They’ve become protesters.

The Canadian cattle herd has increased 0.3% in the past year to nearly 12 million head.

Beef is now so expensive in Argentina, which once was the third-largest exporter, that slaughtering plants are about to start importing cattle from neighboring countries for the first time in almost two decades.