More cattle?

[cowman]

In one of the little weekly papers there was an article about how cattle numbers were up in the west. The article said there were 673,000 more cattle in Alberta alone since 1996! Now somehow I doubt it. Apparently these are Stats Canada figures. I wonder if the figures were from last years census or something. A lot of cattle have been slaughtered or shipped south this winter. The word is that a lot of feedlots are empty or down in numbers.
Is this number realistic? Do we really have that many extra cattle?

[Muttley]

I have heard that here in Sk. we are down on cow numbers by as much as 25% of what we were four years ago.
I am assuming that much of that has come in the last few months. I know my situation will see as much as 100% decrease in cows on my farm if no rain or moisture comes.
One of my biggset concerns now is not how I will feed the cows but how will I feed my family.